Thieving and Other Illegal Activities
by ArtemisiaDream
Summary: When she's sent to earth from the Ark Rosalinda doesn't expect to survive, much less encounter her childhood friend John Murphy. She is part of a gang of thieves who are like a family to her, but not everything is as it seems. Will she be able to discover who set up her arrest? MurphyxOC, Rated M for reasons. CURRENTLY ON HIATUS, sorry folks.
1. Chapter 1

Rosalinda Pale, prisoner 397, aged 17, charged with theft of private property, sentenced to confinement until the age of 18.

That was it. That was her sentence. She still couldn't believe they'd caught her over a damned necklace, of all the things she'd stolen during her time on the Ark. Rosa had always had issues with the notion of private property. Other people's private property, that is. She'd fallen in with a gang of thieves at 15, after years of independent thieving, and quickly rose to the rank of leader. Planning heists, relieving people of valuable items, and buying and selling information, Rosa knew it was her calling.

She wasn't just a petty thief though. She had her set of morals and ideals and always stuck to what she thought to be right. No killing. No fighting, if at all possible. No unnecessary damage to people or objects. Her small family, as she liked to call it since she was an orphan, had its set of enemies and by no means was it the only gang of thieves on the Ark, nor was it the best. But Rosa was working on that. She was going to make it so that hers was the only operation on the Ark.

But then she got arrested. The job had fishy written all over it, but they needed the work. A man had asked them to get the diamond necklace he gave to his now ex-wife back. Whether it was true or not, it didn't matter. He owed them no explanation, nor did they want to hear it. What Rosa couldn't explain though, was how the guards had been waiting to search her right after she left the common area with the necklace. They'd immediately restrained her as if they knew it would have taken her seconds to make the piece of jewellery disappear. At least she only had one year in the Sky Box before being reviewed, and she _would_ be pardoned. Other than the necklace there was no other evidence to her criminal activities. Something told her she'd be paying a visit to Nygel as soon as she got out. After all, who else had the connections to get her arrested and had more than one reason to?

One more week and she'd be free. Rosa lay quietly on her bed, the itchy blanket flung across the room. It really was an offensive piece of fabric. Her internal clock told her it must be morning. She sat up, yawned, and got to work on her daily exercises. Being locked up for a year was not helping her flexibility and with no infiltration jobs to keep her in shape she had to maintain a strict regimen of stretching exercises. Just as she was balancing on her left foot, with her right leg completely stretched upwards, the door to her cell opened.

"Prisoner 397 face the wall" one of the two guards said as they entered.

"What's this about, Ivanov?" Rosa asked, not moving from her position. She knew the guard whom had spoken and he knew her. He had been one of the guards to arrest her and knew what a fight she could put up if she wanted to.

"Don't make this harder than it has to be. Face the wall" the other guard spoke in his place.

Rosa glared at him. "I won't make this harder than it has to be, if you tell me what's going on" she threatened. "I'm not eighteen yet, you have no business here."

"I'm afraid we do Rosa" Ivanov finally spoke. "Just calm down and hold out your wrist, we've got to put this on you" he continued, holding out a strange metal wristband. Rosa just glared at him, debating if bringing her still raised foot down on his head would just make matters worse.

"Enough nonsense" the other guard said as he drew his weapon. The baton began to spark and Rosa cartwheeled backwards, ready for a fight.

"Stop" Ivanov intervened. "Rosa, you're going to the ground. Now just put this damn thing on and quit making problems."

The young thief relaxed her stance when she realized they weren't going to beat her to death. She held out her arm, still watching the guards carefully. Ivanov put the wristband on her small wrist and told her to come quietly. As she was being walked to the dropship along with all the other juvenile delinquents she began to piece together what was happening. A year and a half ago Rosa had gotten a curious job request that had caused her to stumble upon some very valuable information. She knew all too well the Ark was dying and all the mysterious accidents that had been claiming the lives of so many people weren't accidents at all. It was population control. The leadership of the Ark must be getting desperate, sending one hundred kids to die on the ground.

Soon enough Rosa was strapped into her seat on the dropship next to a couple of scrawny guys. The ship took off causing the general level of anxiety to rise even more.

"Hey, my name's Jasper" the closest of the two introduced himself.

"I'm Monty" the other one added.

"Rosalinda" she said "Rosa for short."

"So what do you think is going on?" Monty asked, fidgeting in his seat.

"We're going to the ground," Rosa smiled "hell of a way to die, huh?"

Jasper looked nervous "You're sure?" He questioned as Monty paled.

Just then a screen flickered on revealing chancellor Jaha's face. All one hundred kids stared as he explained how their crimes had made them expendable and that they were indeed going to the ground. Rosa soon tuned out his speech. She felt a strange lump in the seat she was on and began to move, trying to figure out what it was. It felt like a knife but there was something else. Whatever it was it would have to wait, although she had a good idea of who had put it there. She had a few connections within the guard and she knew for a fact that her gang was still looking out for her from the outside.

Three kids were now out of their seats, floating around the dropship. It looked like fun but Rosa knew better, the parachutes would deploy soon and they would probably be killed. A blonde girl echoed her thoughts from across the room but the three guys didn't listen to her. Rosa rolled her eyes.

"So how'd you know where we're going?" Monty asked her, drawing her attention.

"Don't you know? I have eyes and ears everywhere" Rosa giggled as the two boys looked fascinated.

She loved her job and she never got a chance to brag about it since it would have gotten her floated on the spot, but since they were already technically being floated she decided to indulge her pride.

"Ever seen one of those old spy movies?" the two nodded "well they got nothing on me."

All three of them laughed and Rosa was glad they didn't believe her. It was never smart to lay all your cards on the table. Just then the parachutes deployed and the three floating kids were flung around the ship like ragdolls. One of them crashed clean through some tubing and the wires inside began to spark menacingly. "_This can't be good_" Rosa thought as the ship began to shake violently. Even if the earth was survivable it wouldn't matter because thanks to these three idiots they were all going to die in a crash landing.

A loud thud shook the dropship and quieted the screams of the kids. They'd landed. Everyone rushed out of their seats and down to the lower level. Rosa lingered in her seat and watched as the first boy who had left his seat helped the blonde girl check the bodies of the kids on the floor. Both of the reckless teenagers were dead and the one who had survived leaving his seat looked terribly guilty under the judgemental gaze of the blonde.

The two rushed down to the lower level as soon as they realized someone was trying to open the door.

"Stop" Rosa heard the blonde girl shout "the air could be toxic."

"If the air's toxic we're all dead anyway" a vaguely familiar voice sounded. Who did it belong to?

Rosa pushed the thought from her mind for a moment and busied herself with tearing the seat cover she had been occupying during landing. A wide grin spread across her face as a sharp throwing knife came into view. Under it was a handy multi-tool and a notebook with a pencil. Rosa quickly opened the notebook and read what had been hastily written.

_Rosa, me and the gang managed to get you a couple of treats. If you're reading this it means Mole did his job and got this to you. I'm sorry we couldn't do more but the Ark guard is starting to catch on to the fact that he's a spy. Anyway, please don't die on us._

_-Danny_

_P.S. See you on the ground (I hope)._

Rosa closed the notebook and tucked it and the other objects into whichever pockets they would fit in. "_I love my family_" she thought, grinning as she rushed downstairs.

She was greeted by the sight of a tall, dark-haired guard with freckles blocking the door while talking to a younger girl with the same colour hair as him. Rosa now realized why his voice had seemed familiar. He was one of the guards who had arrested her on the Ark. At the time Rosa had only bothered to remember him as someone to get back at when she got out but her second-in-command Danny had managed to gather information on everyone involved in her arrest. This guy was Bellamy Blake. He'd been kicked off the guard and put on janitorial duty and his mother floated after they found out he had a younger sister.

"_So how the hell are you here Blake? And in a guard's uniform too._" Rosa wondered from her perch on the ladder as Bellamy stepped aside, ready to open the door. She realized that the girl now standing in front of the exit must be his sister Octavia Blake. "_Well, that explains why you're down here, but how did you do it?_" Rosa wondered again. Her thoughts were cut short as Bellamy opened the door and the whole crowd of kids were blinded by the sunshine.

It took Rosa only a moment to adjust and realized what she was looking at. Green, brown, and cyan greeted her brown eyes in all their brilliance. It was a forest. Rosa had never seen anything so beautiful. Octavia wasted no time in descending the ramp. The younger Blake paused once her feet hit the soil.

"We're back, bitches!" She screamed out of pure joy and immediately all the other kids flooded out into the clearing. Rosa couldn't contain her joy either and ran out after the rest. She breathed in the fresh air, looked up into the trees, spun around twice and began to run. She felt free as a bird as she leapt over fallen logs and other teenagers. She stopped on a patch of green grass and lay there looking up at the sky, losing track of time.


	2. Chapter 2

"This is amazing!" A familiar voice finally brought her back to reality. Rosa got up and was met with the sight of an overjoyed Jasper and Monty.

"I never thought we'd survive" Monty mused as he looked at the surrounding trees.

"Me either" Rosa added with a grin.

"I'm glad we did" was Jasper's contribution.

"So what do you guys wanna do?" Monty asked.

"I don't know. I'm kind of overwhelmed" Jasper answered.

Rosa didn't speak. She just began to walk towards the dropship and into the group of teenagers. Jasper and Monty followed.

"So what'd you do to get locked up?" Jasper asked, trying to make conversation.

"A lady doesn't kiss and tell" Rosa tried to avoid answering.

"Come on, we won't tell anyone" Jasper insisted.

"I told you, I'm a spy" Rosa giggled.

"No way" Monty wasn't buying it.

"Ok, ok. I'm a thief and a damned good one" Rosa gave in. The boys still looked a little unsure.

"Remember the time Mecha station's storage got emptied?" Rosa went on. It couldn't hurt to let these two know who they were dealing with. Maybe she'd earn a reputation around camp.

"That was you?" The boys' jaws dropped.

"I had a little help from my group, but yeah. That was me"

Jasper and Monty began pestering her to tell them about her heists and, although Rosa was tempted to brag, she kept a lot of the details to herself.

"What about you guys?" The young thief tried to steer the conversation away from her past.

"Herb. Lots of people want it and no one gets hurt" Jasper explained "and Monty has the gardening know-how."

"I see" Rosa grinned as they reached the dropship.

The blonde girl from before was talking about supplies with her friend, the chancellor's son, over a map. Rosa realized the girl had the right idea. They needed supplies if they were going to live. Before she even realized, Jasper had wandered over to the two and started trying to chat up the girl. Rosa took this chance to back away before the boys decided they wanted to know more about her career in thieving. She watched as Wells, the chancellor's son, shoved Jasper away from the girl.

"Hey! Hands off, he's with us" a voice sounded behind them and Rosa couldn't believe her ears. She knew that voice. Sure enough John Murphy emerged from the crowd followed by a gang of thugs with sticks. "_Figures he's already got his little gang going. Wow, sticks, how menacing_" Rosa thought, a smirk forming on her face. It shouldn't have surprised her to find her childhood friend and neighbour here.

"Relax" Wells said holding his hands up in surrender "we're just trying to figure out where we are."

"We're on the ground, is that not good enough for you?" Bellamy's voice sounded to Rosa's left.

Wells sighed "We need to find Mount Weather" he said as he advanced and a crowd began to form. "You heard my father's message. That has to be our first priority."

"_He's right, but he sure isn't making himself too popular_" Rosa thought.

"Screw your father" Octavia cut him off "what? You think you're in charge here? You and your little princess?"

The blonde girl whose name Rosa still hadn't caught began to argue her point. They needed the supplies and they needed to get to them before dark. She was right, of course, but she really didn't know how to talk to society's rejects.

"I have a better idea, you go. Let the privileged to the hard work for a change" of course Bellamy was the spokesperson for the crowd of delinquents. He knew what they wanted to hear. The crowd cheered and Wells tried to continue the argument, only to be shoved by Murphy.

"_And of course he's the one to start a fight_" Rosa thought, rolling her eyes. Murphy managed to trip the chancellor's son, causing him to fall and twist his ankle. The delinquents started to cheer and it looked like a fight was inevitable. Rosa was about to step in but the boy who had survived leaving his seat on the dropship before landing beat her to it. Hushed murmurs of a "spacewalker" erupted from the crowd.

"Kid's only got one leg" the spacewalker glared at Murphy "why don't you wait until it's a fair fight?"

Surprisingly Murphy backed down. Rosa couldn't believe he still hadn't noticed her. She decided to change that.

"John Murphy!" She said as she advanced, distancing herself from the crowd. "Picking fights already, I should have known."

He turned and the annoyed scowl he was wearing dissipated as he saw her.

"Well well! If it isn't Rosalinda Pale, queen of the thieves" he mocked, bowing sarcastically.

"Damn right! You should be kissing my boots" Rosa taunted, her hands on her slender waist.

"Make me" Murphy's eyes gleamed. He was just as she remembered.

The crowd was once again murmuring and Rosa began regretting having drawn their attention. Well, it was too late now.

She ran straight at Murphy as he opened his arms to her. Their bodies collided in a tight hug.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Murphy enquired in her ear "I thought you were too good to get caught."

The crowd began to dissipate, seemingly disappointed by the lack of fighting.

"I am, I think someone set me up" Rosa mumbled back.

Murphy broke the hug and looked her in the eyes. Concern dominated his features, but only for a moment. Ever since he was little Murphy had been Rosa's neighbour. They used to play together as kids and looked out for each other as they grew up. Murphy had always had a delinquent attitude and fell in with a crowd to match. Easy girls with low self-esteem and violent guys with a whole lot of temper issues. He used to be a sweet kid before his dad got floated, but then again Rosa used to be a good girl before she became an orphan. Their lives seemed to start heading downhill at the same time and they only had each other to latch onto. Rosa needed him, but it was no surprise when she found out Murphy had been thrown in the Sky Box. She'd had Mole look after him as best he could and she visited him when she had time. She was planning a way to get him pardoned at eighteen but then she'd gotten arrested herself.

Their little moment was interrupted suddenly as Monty and Jasper approached.

"Hey thanks for helping me back there" Jasper said to Murphy, who just stared at him condescendingly.

"Yeah whatever" was his reply. Monty decided it would be a good time to nudge Rosa and look from Murphy to her with a smirk. Rosa caught on and rolled her eyes.

"It's not like that, he's my friend" she hissed.

Just then the spacewalker kid grabbed Monty and Jasper by the shoulders and spun them around.

"Four of us" he told Wells and the blonde girl.

"Sounds like a party. Make it five" Octavia joined the newly formed group.

As Bellamy began to argue that his sister should stay at the dropship, Spacewalker turned to Rosa.

"I'm Finn, by the way. Nice to meet you, Rosalinda" he held out his hand and she shook it, ignoring a glaring Murphy. "Clarke and I are going to find the supplies in Mount Weather. You coming?"

Rosa debated going with him for a moment but decided against it. "I'll stay, someone needs to scout the area around the dropship. Maybe there's food and water nearby" she replied.

"Suit yourself" Finn said.

"That's actually a good idea" Clarke added, looking at Rosa. "Let me know what you find when we get back."

"Hey" The blonde suddenly grabbed Finn's arm "were you trying to take this off?" She sounded pissed.

"Yeah, so?" The clueless spacewalker asked.

Clarke explained that the wristbands were transmitting their vital signs to the Ark. "_Makes sense_" Rosa thought to herself. Now that the radio was down the wristbands were the only thing telling the Ark that earth is survivable. Rosa glanced at Bellamy and was glad she did, the guy's expression told her he was up to something. Before she could do anything however, Clarke had finished her rant.

"Let's go" she ordered.

Finn, Octavia, Monty, and Jasper started to walk as Clarke turned to Wells who was sitting on the dropship's ramp, still cradling his ankle.

"You shouldn't have come here Wells" Clarke sounded spiteful.

The blonde quickly caught up with the rest and disappeared into the trees.

"Bitch" Murphy mumbled "who put her in charge?"

Wells glared furiously from where he sat and Rosa decided to intervene before the two boys started fighting again.

"We should find some water" she turned to Murphy "wanna help?"

"Sure" he said, still holding Wells' gaze.

"No, we need all the manpower we can get. We're building shelters. Tents." Bellamy ordered.

This broke the stare-down between Murphy and Wells. Rosa could tell by his expression that Murphy was about to argue.

"I don't take orders-"

"He's right Murphy. We can't all sleep in the dropship" Rosa cut him off.

"Come on," Bellamy told Murphy "You and your friends-" he glanced over to the group of thuggish teenagers with sticks near the treeline "-can start building your tents. Think of it this way, you get first pick of materials and position."

"Fine" Murphy conceded. "What about Rosa?"

"I think her scouting idea is a good one," Bellamy turned to her "walk with me."

Rosa followed the freckled young man, ignoring Murphy's gaze again as they turned to walk away. Rosa was going to get some answers.


	3. Chapter 3

"So where do you plan on scouting exactly?" Bellamy asked as they reached the treeline.

"I was going to start north" Rosa began as she pulled him into the forest.

"Ok, if you're not back by nightfall I'll send a search party" Bellamy glanced at her as they entered a small clearing, out of sight from the dropship. The sunlight hit them and Bellamy's expression changed, as if he had only really seen her just then. He recognized her. Rosa wasted no time. Her throwing knife flashed as she held it to his throat.

"I know you remember me. I want answers" Rosa spoke calmly.

"Maybe if you put the knife down" Bellamy acted cocky but Rosa knew he was scared.

"Who told you about me?" Rosa didn't remove the knife.

"Look, no one has to get hurt. I'll tell you what I know, just put the knife down" Bellamy seemed honest but she didn't trust him.

"Come on, what reason would I have for staying loyal to them? They kicked me off the guard, floated my mom and locked my sister up" Bellamy seemed to have read her mind and eased her mistrust.

"Fine, but don't try anything. I really don't want to kill anyone" Rosa lowered her blade.

Bellamy sighed and rubbed his throat, still glancing at the throwing knife. Rosa took the hint and put it away.

"How about this," Bellamy began "you seem like you can handle yourself. I'm going to need help running this place and I want you on my side especially if things get ugly."

Rosa didn't like where this was going.

"I'll make you a deal. Help me out and I'll tell you everything I know."

"I'll help you as much as your information helps me" Rosa agreed.

"Fair enough" Bellamy sighed.

"I wasn't a full member of the guard yet so they never told me much" he began "The orders to arrest you came from Shumway."

Rosa narrowed her eyes "Shumway. Did he tell you how they knew?"

"No, but I overheard them talking about an anonymous tip."

Rosa thought for a moment. Her suspicions were mostly for Nygel, after all it would make sense. But, even if Nygel had sent the man who commissioned the theft, how could she have known exactly when and where Rosa had been planning to pull it off? She hadn't talked about it to anyone outside of her inner circles. This wasn't adding up.

"What do they know about me?" Rosa asked suddenly and Bellamy looked confused.

"What do they know? Do they have a file on me? What's in it?" Rosa was getting worried. Maybe Nygel or the guard had an inside man. If that were the case her family was in danger.

"Yeah they have a file on you, but it's just the necklace theft. Why? Should there be something else?" Bellamy questioned, smirking.

"I'm the one asking questions here" Rosa glared "Are you sure that's it?"

"It's what I saw" Bellamy held up his hands in surrender "if you want I can give you the codes to access your file, not that it'll matter with the com system down."

"Ok, tell me" Rosa ordered.

Bellamy rolled his eyes and told her the codes as she wrote them in her notebook.

"I'm going back to camp, see you before nightfall" Bellamy nodded and left.

Rosa set off due north through the woods as she worried about her gang on the Ark. Danny had been the one who had initiated her after he saw her handiwork on Unity Day. She had been fifteen and him sixteen. Rosa had managed to pickpocket most of the guests at the ball when he'd appeared out of nowhere, leaning on a metal beam partly hidden by shadow.

"You're good. No one gets that good unless they have to. Tell me, where are mommy and daddy?" He'd asked her with a smirk.

"I don't know what you're talking about" Rosa was taken aback. She'd never been caught before.

Danny slid into view, his arms crossed over his toned chest. He was tall, his messy blonde hair hung low into his green eyes. It was a brighter blonde than Rosa's ashy tone.

"I'm Daniel" he held out his hand to her. Rosa hesitated.

"Come on, I don't bite" Danny grinned, still holding out his hand.

"Rosalinda" she finally shook his hand, but as she was about to pull away he grabbed her hand tight, a nervous look on his strong features.

"We have to go, someone called the guards" he tensed as he looked over her shoulder.

Rosa turned to see how he'd known but only managed a glance at a girl about her age with short black hair staring at them from across the room. She must have signalled Danny because he pulled her away by the hand and started running through the corridors of the Ark at top speed. They didn't stop until they were far from the ball room.

"It pays to work in groups you know" Danny panted as he sat on floor in the abandoned corridor they'd stopped in.

"Thanks for that" Rosa began but Danny waved her off.

"You wanna know why I helped you," he looked up at her from under his long shaggy bangs "we could always use an extra hand."

"You want me to join your gang?" Rosa was finding this hard to believe "I barely know you."

"We'll grow on ya, you'll see" the boy grinned again, a carefree grin that Rosa decided was rather annoying, although it suited him. She thought for a moment. She didn't really have much to lose and if these young delinquents could be trusted her life might start looking up after all.

"Ok, fine Daniel. I'll join."

"Call me Danny" he laughed as he got up.

That's how her life with her new family began, all thanks to Daniel, whom she soon found to be particularly trustworthy. He'd shown her the ropes, their hideout, and introduced her to the rest of the gang. The girl who had signalled them at the Unity Day dance was Maddie, she was the youngest of them all, fourteen. Then there was Anna, an eighteen-year-old redhead who managed to get quite well connected with the higher-ups, particularly with the males. Mole, whose real name was Juan, was twenty and training to be in the guard. Mole's younger brother, Santiago, also eighteen, was recruited by Factory station and knew the value of almost anything they got their hands on. He _was_ illegal, of course, since no one on the Ark was allowed to have more than one child. He'd spent his younger years hidden until they'd managed to acquire a fake id for him. It didn't take long at all for Rosa to get settled and start her march to the top.

The sound of combat boots hitting metal brought her back to the present. She looked down at the forest floor and realized she was standing on a rusted metal door.

"_What could this be? A bunker?_" Rosa wondered.

She tried to pull the hatch open but it wouldn't budge.

"Ugh" she groaned as she tried again. This wasn't working.

Rosa slipped the multi-tool from her pocket and used it to hammer around the hatch, hoping to dislodge some of the rust. After much effort and cursing the hatch finally opened. The young blonde was greeted by a musky odour as she slid down the ladder and into the dark bunker. Luckily the multi-tool Danny had gotten her had a small flashlight. Rosa looked around the small bunker and found it to be almost perfectly intact, aside from a layer of dust on everything. The cabinets revealed clothes, blankets, candles and even a couple of first aid kits.

"_Lucky me_" Rosa thought as she dug through all the containers, wardrobes and cabinets.

Rosa thought back to the deal she's made with Bellamy.

"_I'm going to need help running this place and I want you on my side especially if things get ugly_" his words echoed in her mind. He must have thought there's a pretty high risk of things getting out of hand if he'd decided to make such a deal. Rosa knew he was right. A group of one-hundred juvenile delinquents high on freedom is bound to spell chaos. The young thief decided to keep this little bunker to herself, "in case things get ugly".

Rosa emerged from the rusty hatch, covered it up with foliage until it was practically invisible and continued her search. Soon the sun began to set and Rosa made her way back to camp.


	4. Chapter 4

It was practically dark now and Rosa feared she might be lost. Cheering sounded suddenly through the trees and the thief knew exactly where she was. A few long strides and Rosa was back at camp. She let out the breath she'd been holding but her relief only lasted a moment. The whole camp was gathered around a fire. A girl was kneeling near the centre, her arm outstretched on a rock. Murphy and one of his cronies she recognized from his gang on the Ark were busy removing the teenage girl's wristband.

"Crap, where's Bellamy?!" Rosa asked and a boy from the crowd pointed to the rebel leader who was standing by the fire.

Why wasn't he stopping this? She needed the Ark to know she was alive, at least until she got her family down here with her.

"Who's next?" Bellamy asked the crowd and Rosa could not believe what she was hearing. She rounded on Bellamy, ready to give him one hell of a shouting match but Wells beat her to it.

"What are you doing?!" The chancellor's son was angry.

"We're liberating ourselves" Bellamy explained, holding back a couple of delinquents who were already gearing up to fight "what does it look like?"

"That's rich," Rosa chuckled as she stepped into the clearing next to Wells. Bellamy glared.

"It looks like you're trying to get us all killed" Wells looked grateful for the aid.

Wells told the kids that the wristbands were the only things telling the Ark that they were alive. That without them the Ark would think they'd died.

"That's the point, _chancellor_" Bellamy chuckled "we can take care of ourselves, can't we?"

He turned to the crowd and they cheered. Perfect, he was playing them. Rosa realized that whatever Bellamy had done to get down here it wasn't something that would be pardoned.

"Stop!" Rosa yelled "can't you see he's using you?"

Bellamy froze and stared at her "I thought we had a deal" he mumbled so only she could hear.

"So did I" Rosa mumbled back "but you're keeping me from my family."

"Don't listen to her!" Bellamy addressed the crowd "We can survive. We're stong!"

"Do you think this is a game?" Wells intervened "Those aren't just our families up there, but our farmers, our doctors, our engineers! How long do you think we can survive on our own?"

Wells argued his point and Bellamy continued to respond with empty promises and ideals that had no place in a survival situation. But damn he knew how to talk. The delinquents were hanging off his every word. Rosa was about to intervene when a hand on her shoulder spun her around.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Murphy asked her "I thought you'd want this."

"I would if Danny and the others weren't still up there!" Rosa shot back.

Murphy looked sad for a moment "Rosa..."

"Besides" she cut him off "he's up to something. I think he's got big enemies on the Ark."

"So do you Rosa! Sometimes you have to let go. They'll be fine. You know them better than I do. Danny will take good care of them."

"The Ark is dying you idiot! They're running out of air. I have to save them" Rosa blurted out, forgetting that piece of information was a state secret.

"What?" Murphy looked dumbfounded "how do you know?"

Rosa just looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"Ok, I get it. No questions about your job. You never tell me anything..." He mumbled the last part under his breath but Rosa heard him anyway.

They'd always kept out of each other's business, mostly to keep the other safe. When Rosa became an orphan at twelve, Murphy had invited her to live in his house and his mother was always too drunk to care.

"Look, John" Rosa only used his first name when what she needed to tell him was very important "Bellamy can't be trusted, whether he's right about the wristbands or not. Please don't let him use you."

Murphy nodded. He trusted Rosa above anyone else.

She turned back to the argument just as Bellamy began shouting some nonsense about "whatever the hell we want." The crowd erupted in cheers and chanted this new slogan. Rosa knew the argument was lost. She ground her teeth and turned to leave.

Just then thunder sounded and rain began to pour onto the kids. Rosa stopped and looked up to the sky, rain drops falling on her face. She couldn't help but smile. She would find a way to save Danny and the others, hopefully without bringing the whole Ark down with them. A familiar hand grasped hers and pulled her out of her daze. Murphy smiled down at her as he pulled her in for a hug. Rosa giggled as he held her hand above her head as she twirled. The crowd danced and cheered in the rain around them.

"I'm so glad you're here Murphy, I mean it" Rosa smiled.

"Me too Rosa, I got your back."

"I never doubted that" Rosa looked pleased.

Soon the kids began to huddle into groups or went to get settled in the dropship.

"Ugh, I forgot. Looks like I'm gonna have to sleep in the ship with the rest of them" Rosa groaned.

"I got you covered," Murphy told her "we can share the tent I made."

When Rosa had gone to live with him on the Ark they'd shared a room so it wasn't anything new. Rosa had come to find his sleeping presence comforting, when he wasn't drunk and with some girl. The first time he'd brought company Rosa had been asleep. She'd woken up to find a slutty-looking blonde riding a rather drunk Murphy. She'd turned around trying to ignore them and get back to sleep but couldn't. The next day Murphy had apologized, at least, but Rosa insisted she'd been asleep the whole time. She'd been far too shy to tell him the truth. It kept happening though, with a different girl each time, until finally Rosa worked up the courage to get up and go sleep on the couch whenever they woke her. They didn't notice.

Rosa didn't have such an active sex life and the few times she'd felt the need to sleep with someone Danny would always take care of her. Neither of them wanted anything more from the other so that was how it stayed between them. It was just occasional sex. Rosa had always tried to be considerate of Murphy and never brought Danny to their room. Only once Rosa had thought Murphy hadn't come home so she invited Danny. It turns out Murphy had just collapsed on the couch in the living room. The smell of pancakes had woken him and he had glanced up to find a half-dressed Daniel making breakfast.

"Oh hey lil' dude, didn't see ya there" had been Danny's calm reaction, that annoying grin on his face.

Murphy looked at him confused. It was only when Rosa emerged from the bedroom, also half dressed, that he finally connected the dots.

Rosa really hadn't expected him to physically kick Danny out. She'd been furious with Murphy for days after that. How could he not see how unfair he was being? Eventually Rosa had just let it go as one of his unpredictable temper tantrums. He'd always been kind of protective.

"Here we are" Murphy brought her back from her musings as he indicated a sad looking tent near the dropship. He looked proud.

"Looks great" Rosa snorted sarcastically and he shoved her.

"Hey!" Murphy's right hand man Mbege walked up to them "I've seen you around the Ark, you're Murphy's friend right?" he asked Rosa. The rest of Murphy's gang approached as well.

"Yeah, I'm Rosalinda" she said smiling slightly.

"John Mbege" he beamed "a friend of Murphy's is a friend of mine."

"Friend, huh? So you got a tent for tonight?" One of the other three guys asked her as another whistled. Rosa felt Murphy tense at this.

"Oh, I'm good" she replied nonchalantly.

"C'mon-" the guy tried to convince her but Murphy grabbed her arm tightly.

"She's with me." The statement left no room for argument.

The guys backed off and Rosa pulled her arm free. She slipped into the tent and Murphy followed.

"You know, you gotta let me show them I'm not a piece of meat they can mess with. What you just did means they'll come back when you're not around" Rosa rolled her eyes.

"I won't let anything happen to you" Murphy huffed as he arranged the bedding. There was only one bed, if it could even be called that.

"What?" Murphy must have noticed the way she was looking at it "there weren't enough blankets and pieces of parachutes to make two beds."

"Fine," Rosa crossed her arms "just stick to your side."

Rosa was exhausted, it had been a long day and all she wanted to do was sleep. She started taking her jacket off.

"Woah, hey Rosa didn't you just tell me _weren't_ gonna get it on?" Murphy smirked and she threw her jacket in his face.

"You just keep that on your face until I say so" Rosa ordered as she reached under her shirt to take off her bra.

Surprisingly Murphy did as he was told. She kicked off her boots and took the jacket from his face. Murphy started taking his boots off as well and Rosa got under the covers crumpling her jacket under her head to serve as a pillow. It didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

A sudden rustling beside her caused Rosa to wake up just a couple of hours later. Her first thought was that Murphy had brought another girl home. She was about to get up to go sleep on the couch when she remembered where they were. Rosa turned to see Murphy putting his boots on.

"You going to take a piss or something?" She groaned, still half asleep.

"Bellamy needs a hand with something. Don't wait up." With that he left the tent.

Rosa was way too tired to argue or worry or shout after him that Bellamy couldn't be trusted so she just fell asleep on her crumpled jacket. At least it was more comfortable than the bed in the Sky Box.

Murphy was glad she let him go without a fight. He didn't want to have to explain himself. Bellamy had asked him to help get Wells' wristband. He agreed with Bellamy completely and was willing to follow him. Of course he trusted Rosa and if it came down to it he would pick her over Bellamy but she wasn't thinking straight because of her gang of thieves on the Ark. He'd only ever seen them a few times and the only one he actually met was Danny. He didn't like Danny. He couldn't believe Rosa, _his_ Rosa, slept with that idiot. Murphy had stood by her when her mother died, he'd comforted her when her father hung himself and he'd been the one to cradle her through her nightmares. Even after all that she'd run off with that gang of misfits and called them family. Now he finally had her back, he wasn't going to let them come down and take her from him again. She was all he had.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN:** Thanks for following the story. I figured I'd try to think up a plot instead of just making it up as I go. I made a flow chart of events and I feel accomplished. Hah. Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

Blonde strands of hair covered his vision as Danny leaned close to the grate that covered the air vent in the command centre. It was a tight squeeze and listening in on the command centre was usually Maddie's job but he needed to see the data for himself. Rosa had been sent to earth the day before and he was worried sick. Many screens were displaying the vital signs of the delinquents. Quite a few were flashing a menacing "Transmission Terminated". He read them all one at a time, unable to find Rosa's.

"_Mbege... who cares? Murphy... terminated?_" Daniel thought "_if he's dead Rosa's probably gone nuts. Unless..._"

His eyes scanned the screens until he finally found her name. Alive. Danny almost let out a sigh of relief. If that angry jealous kid she lived with had died it didn't really matter much to him, Rosa was way more important. He listened carefully as the doctor whose name seemed to be Abby refused to believe the delinquents were dying.

"There has to be another explanation" she argued with her colleague who had pointed out that the deaths seemed to be caused by radiation exposure.

"Chancellor on deck" a guard announced.

Jaha entered still cradling his bullet wound. Daniel wondered where the young shooter had disappeared to. Interesting that it had been the same guy who'd arrested Rosa. Bellamy was his name. Daniel was curious about him. He hoped they managed to establish communication with the kids on the ground soon, he and Rosa had a lot to tell eachother.

"My son..." Jaha sighed as he saw the flashing red writing over his son's vital readings "we sent them down there to die."

"No. We sent them down there to live, to see if the earth is survivable" Abby stopped him "for all we know they could be perfectly fine."

"_I sure hope so_" Daniel thought as he looked at the screens.

He'd heard enough, it was time to get back to the others. Quietly Danny edged backwards through the vent and made his way to the hideout. All the way down under the floor panels of Factory Station's most forgotten storage hall, half the gang had already gathered. Santiago looked up from his tinkering on the only table they had and greeted him with a smile. Maddie sat on a crate counting the day's earnings.

"Danny, welcome back!" Santiago croaked as he rubbed the stubble on his chin.

"How'd it go?" Maddie went straight to the point, staring at him with piercing blue eyes.

"Rosa's alive. Where are Mole and Anna?" Danny asked, realizing they were missing half their personnel.

"Mole's on duty until late and Anna's picking through that angry mob's pockets" Santiago offered, returning his attention to the seemingly random pieces of electronics strewn on the table.

"What angry mob?" Maddie looked at him a bit confused.

"Parents" Danny answered. "Some people saw the dropship launch and it didn't take them long to realize their delinquent kids were missing. They're all gathered outside the chancellor's office."

Santiago barked out a laugh.

"So Rosa's alive. Does that mean earth is survivable?" Maddie turned her attention back to Daniel.

"They're not sure" he began.

"Not sure? What they can't read? Hell of a team we have on this side if they can't even tell the difference between a live kid and a dead one" Santiago mocked.

"Shut up" Maddie pierced the young man with her gaze. He only chuckled in response.

"They're getting mixed readings" Danny continued "some of them died but they're not sure if it's radiation. Not even that doctor knows what it is."

Maddie stared at the wall, deep in thought.

"Maybe mutants evolved out of that irradiated hunk of rock and are slowly eating the ones who can't run fast enough" Santiago mimicked claws and growled. The two guys laughed.

"Danny" Maddie suddenly focused on him.

"Sorry, Mads" he said still chuckling.

"Who were the dead ones?" She asked.

"What do you mean?" Danny stopped grinning.

"The hundred they sent to earth, who were the ones that died?" Maddie questioned.

"Gee, I can't remember all those names" he replied.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Ok, uh. Mbege was one. Dax, I think. Oh yeah and Rosa's roommate. Murphy" Danny tried his best to remember. He hadn't really been looking for any names other than Rosa's.

"Why? You got an idea Maddie?" Santiago looked curious.

"Yeah, but I need to see the names and their files. Santi, I need you and Mole to help me hack the Sky Box database." The young thief meant business.

"Sure thing" the young man got up from the table "I'll talk to him tonight."

"I have feeling those kids aren't dead and if I'm right" she turned to Daniel "I need you and Anna to get me info on how the Ark plans on getting us to the ground."

"Sure thing boss" Danny mocked, ruffling the youngest thief's hair "you always were Rosa's protégé."

Maddie stuck out her tongue at the blonde. The three decided to go find the remaining two gang members and bring them up to speed.

* * *

Anna had dropped by the hideout to stash what she'd taken from the crowd outside the chancellor's office only to find it empty.

"_What the hell?_" She thought "_I need Santi to appraise this stuff._"

She rolled her eyes and turned to leave but found a tall figure in her path.

"Oh! Juan" she gasped "you surprised me."

"Sorry Anna" The oldest of the gang looked genuinely apologetic.

"Don't worry about it" Anna breathed as she approached and ran her pale fingers through his short chestnut coloured hair.

"I came to find you" the tall man in guard uniform blushed "my shift is over."

The redhead smiled as she kissed him, her full lips enveloping his. Timid brown eyes met fiery green ones once she pulled away.

"Juan" she giggled "it's been a year and you're still as shy as a grade-schooler."

This only caused the already strong blush on his olive tone skin to intensify. This didn't stop him from kissing her back though. They held each other tightly and his hands slid up and down her figure.

"Easy now" she pushed him away lightly "you got something for me?"

"Yeah…" Mole rummaged through his pockets, lust still clouding his eyes.

"Here" he handed her a small plastic bag with a ball of reddish-brown resin in it.

She took it from him without hesitation.

"Oh, thank you so much darling. I'm so glad you managed to find some, poppies don't grow easily in space" she giggled and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"I… got you something else" Mole looked timidly pleased with himself.

The young man pulled out a box from his pocked with a pair of shiny earrings inside.

"They suit you" he held them out to her.

"Oh. Thanks" Anna pocketed them.

Mole smiled and kissed her again "I love you Anna."

The redhead kissed him back but pulled away soon after.

"I have to go" she turned to leave. Mole looked hurt.

"Hey," she smiled at him "come to my room tonight."

"Okay" the shy young man smiled back "I'll see you then."

Anna turned and left the hideout with a flick of her long hair. Juan really wished she'd stayed with him at least a bit more. It was always like this though, no matter how hard he wished. He'd give her all the opium he could afford and she'd be off before he could work up the courage to tell her he thought she should quit. It was like she cast a spell over him, he could never get his words to come out right around her.

Santiago always gave him shit for buying her gifts, for trying to make her happy… in fact, nothing about their relationship seemed to please his brother. He said that she was good at her job but other than that she was bad news. Juan didn't believe a word of it. Anna could be selfish at times and didn't always make the best decisions but he knew that deep down she was a good person. Juan loved her. His little brother didn't seem to understand that. He didn't understand a lot of things.

They'd always been very different siblings. Juan had always kept his hair short and dressed smart while Santiago went through all kinds of hair styles, even dreadlocks, before he finally settled on rows. Juan was generally tidy and had always aimed for the top. Santiago was messiness incarnate and never really bothered with major life choices. His younger brother had slowly but surely fallen in with thieves as it was the only way he knew to help support their mother. She had been all they had until she died of the flu five years ago. Juan barely remembered their father. He was never around and left when Santiago was born. Now it was just them. Even with all their differences Juan found a way to help his brother while still being part of the guard.

"Juan!" his brother's voice brought him out of his thoughts "there you are bro, I've been looking all over for ya."

"I was wondering where everyone was" the eldest lied. Santi just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, right. Look, Rosa's alive on the ground" Juan looked relieved at this and his younger sibling continued filling him in "they're dying though, or at least it looks like it. No one's sure yet. Maddie's got an idea but we gotta help her hack the Sky Box database."

"Wow. Okay" Mole was taken aback at the sudden load of information "when did you want to do that?"

"Soon. We'll talk to Maddie during evening rations" Santi smiled mischievously "this is gonna be fun."


	6. Chapter 6

**AN:** Thanks for following the story guys! Oh, and a big thank you to copperlight for the review. Keep 'em coming, it's so encouraging!

* * *

Rosa woke to the sun shining through the fabric of the tent and light snoring in her ear. It was hard for her to breathe for some reason. She opened her eyes to realize she was being almost completely crushed by a sleeping Murphy.

"Muh..." he mumbled in her ear as his arms tightened around her.

"Murphy! Get the hell off me!" Rosa elbowed him in the stomach.

"Ouch! What the..." he rolled over finally letting her breathe.

"This is why I wanted two beds" Rosa gasped for air.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to crush you" he chuckled as he sat up.

"That was _not_ funny! I could have died" she protested as she batted at him with her jacket.

Murphy raised his eyebrows at her, a smirk forming on his face.

"Don't you dare!" she squealed too late. Murphy had already climbed on top of her and begun tickling her.

"I hate you" She managed between fits of laughter.

Slowly Murphy gave up on his assault, his typical smirk never leaving his face.

"Come on, let's go" Murphy got up and began getting dressed. Rosa did the same, all the while muttering something about revenge.

"So what's the plan? More tents?" Rosa asked after a while as she slipped on her boots.

"I guess so, that blonde bitch and her team still aren't back yet. Did you find anything on your scouting mission?" he asked, not facing her.

"Yeah, I found a stream" she leaned in close to whisper to him "and a secret hideout I wanna show you."

"A hideout?" Murphy turned to face her. Rosa looked serious.

"John, I don't like the way things are going around here. One wrong move could cause a riot. I found a bunker in the woods. I'll show you but you can't tell _anyone_. I mean it."

"Okay. I promise" he looked her in the eyes.

"Good. I have some stuff to do first but when I'm done I'll take you there."

The two got up and left the tent, each going their separate ways. Rosa went looking for Bellamy. She dodged a stream of running kids who appeared to be playing catch with a pinecone. No one was really doing anything productive. She asked around for Bellamy but no one seemed to know where he'd gone. That's when she noticed Wells a ways behind the dropship, a shovel in his hand. He was digging graves.

"Want some help?" Rosa asked as she approached.

"No, I'm done. But thanks anyway" Wells replied. He straightened, holding a bundle of clothes Rosa realized must have belonged to the two dead kids.

"You were smart to bury them, the last thing we need is diseases coming from rotting bodies" Rosa approved.

"That's not why I did it. They deserve a proper send-off" Wells looked taken aback.

"Oh. Well, yeah. That too" Rosa tried to remedy the situation.

Wells sighed "thanks for backing me up about the wristbands yesterday." His tone lacked confidence though.

Rosa glanced at his wrist and noticed it was empty "Where's yours?"

"Ask your boyfriend" Wells spat.

"Murphy? He's not my boyfriend" Rosa sighed "he did this last night, didn't he?"

Wells nodded.

"With Bellamy, right? Anyone else?" Rosa asked, realizing where her childhood friend had been the night before.

"Mbege and two other guys" Wells told her.

"I'm going to find them. Come." Rosa was pissed. How could he do this behind her back, after she'd warned him about Bellamy? She started walking into camp, Wells trailing behind.

"Look, it doesn't matter" Wells called after her "you don't owe me anything. You don't have to do this."

"This isn't only about you Wells, it's about my friends on the Ark" Rosa cut him off, not looking at him "I'm not gonna let Bellamy stop me from getting them to the ground."

Wells was silent. They were almost to the dropship entrance when one of Bellamy's cronies appeared, blocking their path.

"Hey. Uh, where'd you get the clothes?" He asked Wells, greedily eyeing the bundle he held.

"From the kids who died on the dropship" the chancellor's son replied calmly.

"Hey, where's Bellamy?" Rosa interrupted. The last thing she cared to see was this guy taking on Wells for a few extra clothes.

"Busy" the guy smirked, not looking away from the garments "why don't you give those to me?"

"Hey, you didn't answer my question" Rosa stood between Wells and the boy "I need to talk to Bellamy. Now."

Just then the rebel leader emerged from the dropship, shirtless.

"What do you want?" Bellamy didn't seem too happy to be talking to her.

A tall, slim girl emerged after him, planted a kiss on his cheek and left. Rosa rolled her eyes.

"Looks like you're gonna have to keep it in your pants for five minutes 'cause I need to talk to you" she smirked.

Bellamy seemed ready to argue but then he noticed what Wells was holding. He immediately strode up to the taller boy and swiped a shirt from the bundle.

"Got a problem, chancellor?" He challenged as Wells looked displeased.

Instead of arguing like Rosa had expected, Wells simply turned and threw the bundle of clothes on the ground behind him. Immediately a few kids ran up and started fighting over it.

"Is this what you want? Chaos?" Wells turned to Bellamy.

"What's wrong with a little chaos?" was his smug reply.

Just then a scream sounded. Great, what now? Rosa was beginning to wonder if she'd ever be able to talk to Bellamy about the wristbands. She really didn't want to make unnecessary enemies so she was hoping to find a way to smooth things over. She intended to keep her end of the deal they'd made, but there had to be another way to do it. She needed her gang to know earth was survivable.

Bellamy rushed towards the screaming and Rosa and Wells followed suit. When they arrived at the campfire her expression changed into one of utter shock. There was Murphy, _her friend_, holding some poor girl's face over the fire.

"Bellamy! Check it out" he said, barely glancing up at the leader "we want the Ark to think that we're dying. I figured it'd look better if we suffer a little first."

Rosa couldn't believe he sounded proud of himself. He'd never had a very clear notion of right or wrong but this was extreme. Usually on the Ark she'd been around to step in and guide his temper but maybe his time in the Sky Box had changed him. She'd always been against violence and he knew that about her. Rosa was beyond furious. She was about to shout at him when Wells tackled Murphy, freeing the girl. The crowd around them watched eagerly.

"You can stop this" he said to Bellamy with a pleading expression.

"Stop this? I'm just getting started" he said in reply.

"Bellamy, dammit, listen to him" Rosa hissed, coming to stand beside him "you'll get us all killed. Do you have any idea what leading a group of delinquents really means?"

"Stay out of this" Bellamy glared at her, lowering his voice to match hers.

"Can't you see I'm trying to help you? Leadership means everything that happens is your fault. _Everything_."

Bellamy hesitated, thinking about her statement. Murphy chose this moment to punch Wells in the face as hard as he could. The fight the crowd had been waiting for finally began.

"Murphy, you sad excuse for a human being!" Rosa snapped, rage emanating from her every word. Just when she thought she had gotten through to Bellamy he had to go and mess things up even further.

Murphy finally noticed her standing there and guilt washed over his features. This second of hesitation allowed Wells to find an opening and punch him back.

"_Really Wells?_" Rosa thought, annoyed. "_I guess even his patience has its limit, can't say I blame him._"

She turned her attention back to the fight. Murphy looked like a whirlwind. She recalled watching him fight quite a few times on the Ark. She knew she could only do so much to reign in his temper and he knew that when it came to gratuitous violence he was on his own. Even though their opinions on this subject were poles apart, they'd managed a compromise. She was free to try and make him avoid fights but when it came down to it she wasn't to intervene. Rosa knew it was one of those moments again. She crossed her arms and watched. He was going to have a lot to answer for when this was over.

For a moment it looked like Murphy was winning, but it was short-lived. Wells was on top of him in a flash and rained a series of punches down on his face. The taller boy then got up and turned to Bellamy.

"Don't you see you can't control this?" he panted.

Rosa's eyes darted to her childhood friend who was drawing a knife made from metal taken from the dropship.

"You're done" Murphy panted as he got to his feet. He looked deadly. Rosa liked it, not that she'd ever admit it.

"Wait" Bellamy stepped between the two. Rosa was glad he did, maybe he'd listened to her and Wells after all.

"Fair fight" he said to Wells as he dropped a knife at his feet and backed off.

"God dammit" Rosa cursed. She stood ready to intervene. "_Please don't pick up the knife Wells._"

The crowd murmured and Rosa's blood ran cold as the chancellor's son picked up the knife. She took a step forward but Bellamy stopped her.

"You can't let this happen" worry flashed across her features as she stared at Bellamy.

"They need this. Why do you care so much about the chancellor's son?" he looked at her disapprovingly.

"It's not Wells I'm worried about" Rosa was tense under his gaze. "Murphy, he's like family to me."

Bellamy nodded and his expression softened "I won't let them kill each other."

The two fighters lunged and slashed at each other. Murphy managed to cut Wells' upper arm.

"This is for my father!" he ran at the taller boy who managed to spin him around and hold the borrowed knife to his throat.

"Stop!" Rosa shouted. She was about to rush forward.

"Wells!" a voice sounded from the camp entrance. It was Clarke, she and the rest of the kids had returned.


	7. Chapter 7

**AN****:** Thanks to everyone who followed and favorited my story and a special thanks to Merurun and Lioness2012 for the reviews! It's all so encouraging.

* * *

"Let him go" Clarke said as she walked up to Wells.

The chancellor's son did as he was told and let go, much to Rosa's relief. She ran up to Murphy but before she could do anything he lunged at Wells.

"Enough" Bellamy caught him. "Octavia!" he ran up to his sister as soon as she came into view. She seemed to be hurt and was limping.

Rosa wrapped her slender fingers around Murphy's arm, turning him to face her. He didn't look her in the eyes. She was still furious at him but that would have to wait. The blonde used her other hand to turn his face and inspect the bruises that were already forming. Concern painted her features as Murphy finally looked at her and she cupped the side of his face in her hand.

"I'm glad you're okay" she sighed, worry leaving her face "but really John…"

"Yeah, I know. I'm an asshole, a criminal, a pathetic excuse for a human being" he sighed, tilting his head back. She flinched as he quoted her earlier outburst.

He looked away from her, any hint of sarcasm gone "I'm sorry you had to see that."

Rosa bit her lip, looking concerned "Me too."

When he kept looking at the ground intently she continued.

"What on earth made you think that was a good idea?"

Once again, he made no reply. Rosa was about to continue shaming him until she got a reply but Bellamy drew her attention first.

"Where's the food?" he asked, looking to Clarke.

"We didn't make it to Mount Weather" Finn answered for her as he sat on a rock.

"What the hell happened out there?" Bellamy raised his voice.

"We were attacked" Clarke explained, looking scared.

It was then that Rosa noticed they were one man short. Jasper was not among them.

"We're not done here" she hissed to Murphy under her breath and approached Clarke.

"Attacked? By what?" Wells asked.

"Not what. Who." Finn corrected him.

Rosa froze in her tracks. Did this mean they weren't alone? I made sense, since even they'd managed to survive and the land was full of natural resources. The news was no less shocking though. Clarke and Finn confirmed what they'd just said and the kids around them began to murmur. The grounders were hostile.

"Clarke" Rosa finally managed "Jasper's missing. Is he…?" Rosa feared the worst for the poor boy.

"Jasper was hit. They took him" she replied. Rosa took this to mean he might not be dead.

Clarke then glanced over at Wells.

"Where's your wristband?" she asked disdainfully.

"_Great, here we go again_" Rosa thought.

Wells glared at Bellamy.

"How many?" She asked the rebel leader.

"Twenty-four and counting" Murphy answered for him. Rosa shot him an angry look.

Clarke addressed the crowd of teenagers, telling them that the Ark was dying and they needed the earth to be survivable. So that's why she'd been locked up. She knew too much. Rosa knew from experience that the right information could hold incredible value.

Just as Bellamy began to argue with Clarke, Rosa decided she'd had enough. She grabbed Murphy by the arm and pulled him all the way to the dropship.

"Let go" Murphy jerked his arm out of her grasp as she stopped behind the dropship.

"I thought we talked about this, are you _trying _to get Danny and the others killed?!" Rosa finally let loose.

"Rosa, please, this is our chance to start over" Murphy sounded sincere.

She just stared at him, her face a mixture of confusion and anger.

"Do you really think the higher-ups are gonna pardon us if they come down here?" Murphy took her silence as a chance to continue "I'm doing this for you Rosa. If they come down here they'll just lock us up and I'll never see you again. Even if they don't, we'll be lucky if they let us clean their boots."

"Murphy…" Rosa's face softened.

"I want us to be happy, we can have a good life here" he continued.

She looked thoughtful for a moment.

"I understand, John, but I'm worried about you" she looked him in the eyes "be careful what you sacrifice to get what you want. You might just lose something more precious along the way."

Murphy was silent. She lifted a hand to brush his bangs out of his face.

"No one has your back like I do, you know that" she smiled slightly and he nodded "just, please understand I'm not willing to abandon my friends" her tone was serious.

"Fine" he huffed and turned to leave.

"Hey" she grabbed his shoulder "one last thing. What is going on between you and Bellamy?"

Murphy looked uncomfortable and shuffled his feet "What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb. I warned you about him and you keep running around doing his bidding, acting like his bitch. Did he make a deal with you?" Rosa narrowed her eyes at him.

"Screw you. I'm not his bitch" he tried to avoid the question.

"Murphy, tell me." The way she looked at him left no room for argument.

"Okay," he sighed, holding his hands up in surrender "he said I'll be his second in command if I help him."

"Huh" Rosa thought for a moment.

Bellamy seemed very determined to be in command. She wondered as to how many others he'd proposed this deal to. Being power-hungry was one thing but he had to have at least one other reason to be doing all this. She thought back to when she'd told Bellamy that Murphy was like family to her, how his face had softened. Maybe he and Murphy were aiming for the same thing. They both wanted to make the world safe for the person they cared for the most. Rosa realized that Bellamy figured this would be the best way to give Octavia the happiness and freedom he hadn't been able to give her on the Ark.

"I'm not gonna back out, if that's what you're thinking" Murphy interrupted her thoughts.

Rosa looked up at him "I'm not asking you to."

He raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised "what?"

"He tried to get me to help him too" his brow furrowed at her words "I guess it can't hurt if he thinks we're on his side. He doesn't trust me, but I can find a way to fix that. Bear with me Murphy, I have a plan."

He stared at her as she plotted. He loved it when she got all involved in her grand ideas. No wonder her gang of thieves followed her. She was the type to sit on the side-lines and watch the power games play out, all the while pulling the strings. He'd always admired her, she was strong, smart and so beautiful… wait, what was he thinking?

"_This is Rosa we're talking about._" He mentally slapped himself "_she's way too good for you, you'd just hurt her._"

It was only the hundredth time he'd had to push thoughts of her being more than his friend from his mind. On the Ark the easy girls that would hang around him and his friends would keep his mind occupied. But since he'd been locked up and particularly now, on the ground, thoughts of Rosa were all the more frequent.

"Hello?" Rosa brought him out of his daze, looking annoyed "are you listening to me?"

"Uhh…" he couldn't believe how dumb he sounded.

She rolled her eyes "I was saying we should let him think we're helping him. He knows how to talk to a crowd: he tells them what they want to hear. He'll keep us safe around camp but we can't rely only on him. We have to be prepared. The threats are either internal or external. We have to make allies, Murphy, so that means no more trying to burn girl's faces."

It was Murphy's turn to roll his eyes "I wasn't really gonna do it. Besides, I said I'm sorry."

"Yeah whatever" she continued "as for external threats, we're better of sticking with the group. It's better for survival. We need to have an escape plan though, in case things go wrong."

Murphy nodded.

"I'll take you to that bunker I found, come on" she turned to leave and he followed.

The two circled the dropship and saw Clarke talking to Bellamy. Murphy paused under the rebel leader's gaze. Rosa stopped too. She saw the two leaders were getting ready to go somewhere. Clarke turned and followed Bellamy's gaze.

"Rosa" Clarke said when she saw her "I've been looking for you."

"Oh" Rosa was hesitant "what for?"

"We're going to find Jasper. I hear you can handle yourself, we could really use your help" she answered, coming to stand in front of her.

"Jasper, yeah…" Rosa wanted to help, he was a nice kid after all, but now wasn't the time.

Just then Bellamy appeared behind Clarke "Murphy, you're with me."

"Atom" He addressed one of his gang "my sister doesn't leave this camp, is that clear?"

"I don't need a babysitter" Octavia was clearly annoyed.

Murphy and Rosa looked at each other as Bellamy barked out orders and argued with his sister. It looked like they didn't have a choice but to go with them, leaving on their own now would be seen as very suspicious.

"Let's go!" Bellamy finally ordered.

Rosa sighed and began trailing behind Clarke and Wells. Murphy sidled up to Bellamy and the group left camp. Clarke seemed like a strong girl and besides, she represented Rosa's interests more than Bellamy did. Rosa knew she'd be better off with her as an ally. Perhaps this rescue mission wasn't just side-tracking her plans. If Rosa could prove to Clarke and Wells that she could be helpful maybe they'd accept and help her. The only problem was trying to smooth things over with Bellamy at the same time. This wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

**AN:** I hope you guys enjoyed, next chapter will be from Danny and the gang's point of view. See you next time!


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: **Thanks to my dear readers, particularly Merurun and Lioness2012 for reviewing. I was going to wait at least a day before posting the new chapter but I just felt so pumped by the feedback I've been getting, I just had to post it. Plus, it's a pretty dramatic and intense chapter in my opinion. Enjoy!

* * *

The Ark was in a state of chaos, protesters demanded news on the dropship and their delinquent kids while the council had their hands full with covering up the mission to earth and planning their secret meeting. All the while the people suffering from oxygen deprivation had medical working in overdrive.

Danny had managed to find out that the council would be gathering after rations to discuss something important. He hadn't managed to find out what. He certainly was going to keep shadowing doctor Abby, though. She was a wonderful source of information on the council. He'd told Maddie about the meeting and she'd decided that would be the best time to carry out her plan. Mole and Santiago were to meet her near the Sky Box terminals while Danny and Anna were to listen in on the council meeting.

The redhead had gone already but Danny had decided to stay with Abby a little longer. The doctor was busy fiddling with a control panel, trying her best to find proof that the kids weren't dying on the ground.

The young thief sat on his perch in the service shaft, close enough to the exit to make a quick getaway.

No one could describe his astonishment when a brunette about his age descended the ladder beside him. They stared at each other for a moment, unsure what to do. She obviously wasn't from maintenance because she didn't have a tool kit.

"I won't tell if you won't" her voice was barely audible as she smirked.

Danny simply nodded, still dumbfounded. The girl descended the ladder the rest of the way. Evidently they had the same objective in mind. He turned his attention back to the conversation on the other side of the grate in the wall.

"Abby, we have to stop" the doctor's colleague told her "the council votes in thirty minutes."

"Then we have thirty minutes" she clipped "anything from engineering?"

"Nothing good," he replied "according to Sinclair even if we sent a signal down, the wristbands weren't designed to receive so the kids won't even hear it."

"There's gotta be something we missed, something we haven't thought of…"

Suddenly the girl in the maintenance shaft below him moved to leave but hit her boot against the ladder. Abby turned in the direction of the noise.

"Great, what's falling apart this time?" Her colleague complained as she started towards the grate.

"_Crap_" Danny thought to himself. With cat-like agility he slid up the rest of the ladder and turned to give the girl one last glance.

She panicked and tried to clamber up the ladder after him but the entrance to the maintenance shaft opened. Danny slid out of view just as Abby grabbed the brunette's leg and pulled her off the ladder.

"I'll call security" the other doctor said as the girl held her hands up in surrender.

"They're not dying" she said, matter-of-factly.

Danny was about to leave before his luck ran out but this stopped him in his tracks.

"What are you talking about?" Abby asked curiously.

"All that's being sent from the ground?" Danny couldn't risk peeking through the vent but he figured the girl had glanced at the screens.

"Yes. Transmitted by these" the doctor said. Danny cursed the fact that the only viewpoint was now compromised.

"They're taking them off" the brunette spoke after a moment of silence.

Perhaps this girl would turn out to be more useful than he had originally thought.

"What?" the other doctor asked "why would they do something so reckless?"

"Because we told them not to" Abby answered.

This was good. He grinned to himself. Could this be what Maddie was investigating? Danny decided to head off to meet Anna before the council had fully gathered.

* * *

"'Bout time!" Santi barked at his older brother. He and Maddie had been waiting near the entrance to the Sky Box.

"Sorry guys," Mole scratched the back of his head "took me a while to get out of crowd control."

Santi nodded and Maddie uncrossed her arms "let's go."

Mole approached the door and entered his access code. The door opened to reveal a short corridor. It was empty. The council wouldn't bother posting guards in an abandoned prison when they had so many other problems around the Ark. The three reached the end of the corridor and Mole slid his identification card in the slot near a door on the right. A small light glowed green and the lock disabled. They were in.

The room they found themselves in was full of consoles and screens. Maddie and Santiago immediately started tapping away at the control panels.

"Hey, bro, why don't you keep watch?" Santi shot his brother a look.

"Oh, yeah, sorry" he mumbled as he went to stand outside the door. Santi rolled his eyes.

"Dammit, I can't get in" Maddie cursed as the screen she was tapping on glowed red.

Santi continued typing in commands. "Crap, me either" he hissed soon after.

"What now?" he looked to the youngest of them. She looked thoughtful.

"I got this" she said with a determined look "Santi, lift me up to that grate there."

He immediately did as she said and held her up so she could reach the grate above the consoles. She quickly dislodged it and crawled in. Santi poked his head in after her, partly standing on a console.

"What'cha doing?" he asked as she ripped a panel off the wall to her left, revealing tons of cables and wires.

"I can't gain access 'cause command centre's blocking us. I need to bypass that manually. Come on" she pulled him into the crawlspace.

"I get it" Santi said as he sat beside her "you need me to figure out which one of these leads to the command centre and intercept the signal. We're gonna need a…"

"Way ahead of you" Maddie smiled, pulling a tablet device from her pocket.

Santi grinned at her "that's my girl" he said as he took the device and began fiddling with the wires.

"Mole" Maddie poked her head out of the crawlspace "I need you in here."

The dark haired young man rushed into the room and stood confused for a moment, not realizing where the other two were.

"Over here" Maddie hissed.

"Oh, sorry" Mole looked to her, then to the grate they'd thrown to the floor. He picked it up and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she smiled slightly "but I need you to go over to the consoles. As soon as Santi says he's ready I need you to start transferring all the Sky Box's data to my tablet."

"Sure thing Mads" he mumbled as he wandered over to the consoles in the centre of the room.

A few minutes passed, the tense silence broken only by Santi's cursing.

"Ok! I got it" he finally said.

Mole rushed to type in the necessary commands. He wasn't too good with technology and he really hoped he didn't mess anything up. Soon the screens began displaying all the necessary data while the central screen displayed a loading bar. The writing "Copying" flashed above it.

"It's working" Mole smiled, looking over to the other two.

"We did it" Maddie smiled back.

"Awesome, bro! We couldn't have done it without ya" Santi looked gleefully at his brother. Juan just was glad he was helping. He missed the days when little Santi used to look up to him.

The loading bar was almost full when Santiago looked at the wired-in tablet he was holding. It flashed menacingly red.

"Fuck!" Santiago felt his heart stop "We tripped an alarm! Juan, get in here, now!"

His older brother took a step towards them but stopped and paled when he heard footsteps in the corridor outside. Maddie held the grate in her hands and both the younger thieves looked at him pleadingly. Mole only nodded to Maddie. He was the least flexible of them all and he knew that if he tried to clamber into the crawlspace he wouldn't make it in time and they'd all be caught. She seemed to understand and slammed the grate shut in front of her.

"Hey" Three guards entered the room "what are you doing in here?"

Mole was silent. The guards looked at the screens.

"You don't have clearance to access this information. Hands up and face the wall" one of them spoke menacingly.

Mole complied. He knew there was no way out of this. Behind the grate Maddie held a hand over Santiago's mouth. Despair had overwhelmed him when he realized his brother could not be saved. Juan would be floated for this and the last thing he did was save him from the same fate. Santiago didn't want to believe it. Tears rolled down his cheeks as Maddie restrained him further.

"Sir, all data has been successfully copied to an unknown third party" one of the guards reported as he tapped his fingers on a console.

Maddie ripped the cables from the tablet Santiago had dropped beside her. The last thing they needed was for this all to have been for nothing.

"Can you find out where it went?" the commander of the guards inquired.

The first guard began entering commands in the console and Mole held his breath.

"No, sir" was the reply. Mole sighed in relief. At least Santi and the others would be okay.

"Who were you working with?" The commander addressed Mole.

He was silent.

"The commander asked you a question" one of the guards almost yelled.

"Never mind, we'll make him talk eventually. Take him away" the commander ordered.

Mole gave one last loving glance at the grate that hid his younger brother and friend before he was handcuffed and shoved out of the room.

After a while the guards cleared out with the evidence they could find and Maddie finally let go of Santiago. The young man simply dropped down on the cold metal floor of the crawlspace and let his tears fall. His one and only brother had been taken from him. The only family he had left.

Maddie replaced the wires in the wall and covered them with the panel. Everything looked exactly like before, except for the two kids. She put away the tablet with the data on it and put a hand on Santi's shoulder. He shook it off and glared at her.

"Santi" she whispered "we have to go."

Slowly he got up and removed the grate. He slid onto the floor silently and Maddie came down behind him with a thud. She wasn't tall enough to get down without help but Santi had ignored her. Without a word he replaced the grate. They made sure the coast was clear and made their getaway.

They snuck back to the hideout with a heavy silence weighing on them. Once they got there, Santiago stomped down the stairs to the table and just as Maddie shut the hatch behind them he upended the piece of furniture.

"God dammit" his voice broke.

"Santi…" Maddie tried to calm him.

"Shut up!" He rounded on her "this is your fault!"

She looked horrified at his accusation.

"This was all your idea" he continued to shout at her "you didn't even let me save him! Do you even care?!"

"Of course I care" she hissed "but what would you have done? Gotten arrested with him?"

Santiago shook silently.

"You saw the way he looked at us" she continued "he knew we couldn't help him."

"Rosa would never have let this happen" he finally sobbed.

"I'm sorry…" Maddie took a step towards him.

He fell to his knees and beat his fists on the floor. She kneeled beside him and hugged him.

"I'm so sorry Santi" she whispered as a tear rolled down her cheek.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN:** Hey, I just wanted to let you readers know you're awesome. A big thank you to all the people who followed, favorited or reviewed this story.

Important: I feel pretty stupid for having forgotten to put in an important bit of backstory for the two brothers Juan and Santi. I had to go back and do a small edit in chapter 3! Basically I forgot to say why Santi isn't in lockup for being born, like Octavia. If you don't feel like going back to read chapter 3 again, basically he has a fake identity card. It's also explained in this chapter so... here you go!

Oh yeah, this is gonna be a sad one. Enjoy!

* * *

"The chancellor abstains" Jaha's statement was met with general displeasure and some council members even left the room in a huff.

Anna and Danny let out a sigh of relief. They heard the decision through the device they'd connected to the wires in the crawlspace a couple of corridors away. Last year the gang got their hands on a very special, practically undetectable microphone. Maddie and Santi had managed to bug the council room and the gang had been listening in on the meetings ever since. The only drawback was that they were only able to access it from a control panel in a maintenance shaft two corridors to left of the meeting room. It had worked for them so far but it wasn't too convenient. At least Maddie had found a way to stop the connection from timing out every ten minutes.

Danny really was clueless about this sort of stuff. He could sneak, climb, and eavesdrop almost anywhere but when it came to technology he was stumped. Even Mole knew more than him. Good thing Anna was with him. She was the type of person to learn what she needed and even though tech wasn't her passion it was her concern. She knew what to do in case the connection timed out but only because she'd memorized it from Maddie.

"You have ten days" the chancellor's voice came through fragmented as Anna fiddled with the controls on the receiving device.

The two thieves looked at each other. The council had almost decided on the biggest population control operation yet. Three-hundred people were going to be sacrificed in ten days.

"This bad" Danny worried "we have to go tell the others."

Anna nodded and was about to disconnect the device when a new voice was heard.

"Chancellor, sir," the tone of voice suggested he was a guard.

"Yes?"

"A guard has been arrested sir," he notified him "for hacking the prison database."

Danny and Anna froze. Could this be Mole they were talking about?

"All the files have been copied to an unknown third party" the guard continued "but he won't speak as to who he was working with."

"I see" Jaha's tone was solemn "did he say anything at all?"

"No sir," the guard sounded annoyed "not a single word."

"I understand. Prepare him for floating and notify any family he might have" the chancellor got up "let's get this over with quickly."

Anna and Danny could hardly believe their ears. This was most certainly Mole they were talking about, it couldn't be anyone else. They quickly gathered their things and left to find the others.

"Santiago" Danny blurted as soon as he entered the hideout "is it true?"

Santi only stared at him from his seat at the table and nodded. Maddie held him.

"They're getting ready to float him" Anna cut in from behind Danny "which means they'll be looking for you Santi, to notify you."

The younger brother glowered at her. Slowly he got up and left the room.

"They're floating him already?" Maddie seemed ready to cry "we have to save him!"

"How?" Anna stared her down "even if we did manage to bust him out of the holding cells near the airlock the place is crawling with guards."

"There has to be a way!" Maddie burst out crying "Santiago and I will find it."

She ran out after the young man. Danny gave Anna a look that said he knew she was right but didn't want to believe it.

"I'm gonna go stop them from doing anything stupid" he said and ran out after the two.

Anna stood alone in the room staring at the floor. She felt horrible. None of them knew it and they all thought she was an unfeeling monster. She wasn't, she had just learned to hide her feelings was all. Growing up she'd found that burying her pain was much easier than facing it. Her stepfather had taught her that. When she cried he'd only beat her harder. He'd made her live in fear for years until he finally died of the heart attack she'd wished on him with all her strength.

She'd made some bad choices and she regretted getting hooked on opium, but she couldn't help it anymore. She cared for Juan. He was sweet, gentle, and kind with her. In the end, though, she'd only ended up using him. She regretted that too but it was too late now. Anna buried her pain once more and left the room to find the others.

She looked along the corridors of Factory Station to no avail. The only nearby place they could have all gone was Santiago and Juan's apartment. The redhead's heels clicked as she walked there and sure enough she could hear indistinct voices coming from the other side of the door.

"… I get it!" Santi was shouting at Danny as Anna entered the apartment.

"Then maybe we could… ah, fuck, I dunno" Santiago sounded desperate "we could take the shaft that runs along the thruster fuel tubes! It would practically get us in front of the holding cells."

"We all know it's hot as hell in there. Besides, it wouldn't get us close enough. We'd be seen before we even get to the door" Maddie sounded defeated.

"We have to try!" he panicked "if we can somehow shut down the thrusters in that area…"

"That's risky and even if it weren't it would take hours to cool the shaft enough for us to pass" Maddie stopped him again.

"Well you fucking suggest something" he yelled at her, earning a frightened gasp from the teenage girl.

"Santiago" Danny put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him, a warning in his eyes "don't take it out on her."

"Santi…" Anna finally spoke "we're out of time."

She heard footsteps outside the door and just after the words had left her mouth there was a loud knock.

"Santiago Marquez" a guard's voice sounded from the other side of the door "we have news of your adopted brother Juan Ramirez."

Santiago hated the fake identity he'd had to hide behind all his life. According to the identification card his mother and Juan had managed to acquire for him when he was six years old, he was adopted. Marquez had been the name of an old friend of the family who'd agreed to help them. He'd always dreamed of taking the real family name and not having to keep it secret anymore.

Santi shook the thoughts of family from his mind and stalked over to the door. The rest of the group tried to settle in and look as casual as possible.

"Hello officers" he said, trying not to punch either of them "what happened to Juan?"

"He was arrested for illegally accessing information he didn't have clearance for."

The scene unfolded with each of them playing their parts, with everyone feigning surprise and acting innocent. Santiago found the falseness of it all disgusting, grotesque even.

After they asked their routine questions to no avail the guards began accompanying them to the airlock to attend the floating. There was nothing they could do now but Santiago still clung desperately to a last shred of hope. Maybe they'd be able to stop the floating. Maybe he'd get an idea on how to save his brother when he got there. No way was he just gonna let him die.

As the group was guided through the winding corridors of the Ark Santi could think of no one but his brother. He may have been a bit of an airhead at times but he always did his best to protect him. Juan had been eight when he'd helped their mother get Santi an id. He'd started guard training as early as possible but Santiago just couldn't figure out why at the time. Juan had never been the competitive type and he just couldn't figure out why his older brother had suddenly begun rocketing up the career ladder. He knew now, of course. It was all to protect him, to make his life easier. Santi had always known he could never amount to much because all the decent jobs would draw too much attention. The fake id he had would keep him safe but it wasn't flawless. He'd had to flunk engineering because of it. He'd never realized until now how much his brother really cared about him. He'd given up his future to make one for his little brother.

"Sir" the guard spoke to Jaha once the group had reached the airlock "I have retrieved his friends and adopted brother."

The chancellor only looked at them with a grim expression. He knew words would only make things worse for them. Santiago shot the chancellor a hate-filled glance and turned to the airlock entrance. There he saw his brother, handcuffed and surrounded by guards.

"Juan" he choked out as he met his brother's gaze.

Juan gave him a light smile. Santi ran to his brother but the guards held him back just before he could reach him.

"Get the fuck off me!" he shouted, desperately trying to get to Juan.

"Let him," Jaha stopped them and turned to the guards surrounding Juan "and remove his handcuffs."

The guards did as they were told and the two brothers embraced tightly.

"I'm gonna get you out of this Juan" Santi was on the verge of tears "I'm not gonna let you die."

"Santi" his brother looked at him with his kind brown eyes "you can't stop this."

"No!" he couldn't believe what his brother was saying.

"Santiago, please just promise me one thing" his chocolate brown eyes were beginning to water "don't die. It's what ma' would have wanted and…" he choked back tears "… it's what I want. I love you, be strong Santi."

"Juan, no" he shouted again, his own eyes brimming with tears "you can't die Juan. You can't!"

The guards dragged him back to the others as tears began sliding down his cheeks. He reached for his brother one last time before the airlock doors slid closed.

"I promise" he stared his brother in the eyes as a guard's hand hovered over the red eject button.

"I promise" he breathed as Jaha gave the order and the outer doors opened.

The vacuum of space pulled Juan from the Ark and Santiago almost couldn't believe his eyes. His ears were ringing, his mouth felt dry and his knees buckled underneath him. A strong pair of hands grabbed him and he only barely registered a teary-eyed Daniel pulling him up. One by one the guards began to leave, followed by the chancellor.

After what seemed like an eternity Santiago finally started to register what was going on around him. The first thing he heard was a desperate, muffled sobbing coming from behind him. He turned to see Anna, whose cheeks were also wet with tears, cradling a wailing Maddie. Danny stood silently grieving next to them, a hand on Santiago's shoulder. As soon as he realized this he brushed it off and stalked out of the airlock room. He felt disoriented as he ghosted his way back to his apartment.

"_Yes, it's only _my_ apartment now_" he thought as he let his body drop onto his bed.

Juan had given everything for him and all he'd managed to do was be a horrible brother and a failure. And now he was gone and there was nothing he could do to make it up to him.

"_Wait, there is one thing_" he thought as he remembered his promise to Juan "_I can survive. I can live._"

Santiago rolled over so he was facing his brother's empty bed and finally let out all the pain he'd been hiding. Tears clouded his eyes as he began to feel tired. Finally he succumbed to a nightmarish sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN:** Hello again and welcome! A billion thanks to everyone who has favorited, followed, or reviewed my story. I'm so happy! Too bad this chapter is still a little sad but it ends on a happier note (I think). I'm sorry for all the sad chapters lately but they're necessary to the plot. Personally I think Murphy and Rosa would have to have gone through a lot together to have the kind of relationship I'm writing for them. Anyway, Enjoy! And don't forget to review!

**Warning** for some dark themes from Murphy and Rosa's past (sorry!)

* * *

Murphy watched closely as Rosa walked beside Bellamy. The two were a ways ahead but he could still make out what they were saying.

"Hey Bellamy," Rosa began "about what we agreed…"

"Stop" he interrupted "it doesn't matter. You proved where your loyalties lie. I can't say I blame you, we just have different goals."

Murphy was surprised at his civility. He had been expecting Bellamy to lash out at her, but then again it was better that he hadn't.

"No, Bellamy, we don't" Rosa looked at the rebel leader "you want to protect your family just like I do."

He looked at her thoughtfully.

"My closest friends are still on the Ark" she continued "I can't let them die. They're like family to me. The only person closer to me than them is Murphy."

"Okay," Bellamy stared straight ahead "cut to the chase. You must have an idea or you wouldn't be telling me this."

"Fine" she was serious, all trace of emotion gone "I can't help you against the Ark until my friends are on the ground, but I don't like breaking my promises. I need you to know my word is worth something. I'll keep my end of the deal in any way I can."

"Right," he was unsure "and why would you do that? There's a pretty obvious conflict of interest here."

"There is, but I think we both know who can lead those kids back there. You know how to talk to them, you know what they want. I just want to be on the right side, you know, in case things get ugly."

Bellamy smirked and nodded "fine, I think we can work this out."

The group trekked in silence for a while until Bellamy thought it would be a good idea to hassle Clarke for her wristband. He still believed Murphy was completely on his side. He waved his gun in the blonde's face challengingly.

"Put the gun away Bellamy" Wells advanced on him but Murphy stepped in.

His gaze paused briefly on Rosa, who nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Why don't you do something about it?" he challenged the taller boy.

Rosa was glad Murphy had taken her warning to heart this time. He was playing his part as Bellamy's lackey quite well.

"The only way the Ark is gonna think I'm dead is if I'm dead" Clarke was staring at Bellamy.

"Brave princess" he moved and Rosa hoped she wouldn't have to intervene. Things were still pretty delicate between her and the leaders and she didn't want to upset the balance she was beginning to create.

"Why don't you get your own nickname?" Finn appeared in the clearing.

Rosa _had_ thought it was strange he hadn't come on the rescue mission.

"You call this a rescue party?" he looked at them all "spread out, cover more ground. Clarke, come with me."

He strode off with Clarke as soon as he finished his sentence. Wells didn't seem happy at all. Noticing this, Rosa approached him and started a conversation while Murphy and Bellamy spread out to the right. The leader was silent as he strode on ahead. Murphy lagged behind watching Rosa. He could tell she was already getting a feel for Wells' situation, sizing him up, and determining his usefulness as an ally or the danger he could pose as a threat. He smirked as he thought back to her conversation with Bellamy earlier. All that stuff about him being the "right side" to be on "in case things got ugly" was just lip service. She was playing him, and the others.

Murphy wondered to himself when she'd gotten this good. He remembered how different she used to be when they were kids on the Ark. She used to be such a shy, naïve cry-baby. When they were growing up he'd formed a possessive attachment to her. He hadn't wanted to show it back then, but he cared about her. When they were four years old he would take her toys and make her cry, but he'd always give them back in the end. At seven he'd be pulling her hair for having made new friends but then took it upon himself to make them be nice to her. No one on the Ark had been allowed to make her cry but him.

Once they turned ten however, things started to change. His dad got floated for trying to steal the medicine he needed to recover from the flu. He'd started acting out and even though he'd tried to push her away Rosa had stayed. One year later Rosa's mother had passed away from the same flu he'd had and suddenly Murphy couldn't make her eyes go wide with wonder at his stories anymore. He couldn't bully her without a fight and he couldn't make her believe everything he made up anymore. She started to pick fights with her friends and misbehave at school.

Murphy remembered the abandoned storage closet near their houses they used to use as a hideout. When they were little it had been a fun fort to play in but as they grew it became a place of refuge. Once when they were eleven Rosa had had a particularly problematic few days and he'd come to find her after school. He'd climbed in only to find her curled up in a corner hugging her knees.

"Rosa…" he'd tried to put an arm around her but she brushed it off "what happened?"

She only looked at him, eyes wet but no longer crying.

He touched the back of her hand only to find his fingertips wet with blood. His eyes widened.

"Rosa, are you hurt?" he asked, worried.

"It's not mine you idiot" she mumbled, fresh tears brimming in her eyes "now go away!"

"No" he sat closer to her "not until you tell me what happened."

She tried to shove him but her fists only balled in his shirt as she started crying.

"Jimmy talked about my mom" she sobbed "I broke his nose."

"What did he say?" Murphy was getting angry. How dare some dumb classmate make his friend cry?

"He said…" she hiccuped "he said it was good she died so there would be more food for the rest of us. He said she was weak."

He wrapped his arms around her as she shook.

"I didn't mean to break his nose" she said, trying not to cry anymore "I wasn't thinking and now they all hate me… You're the only friend I have left, John."

"It's okay Rosa. You have nothing to be sorry about. He deserves worse." That kid was gonna pay.

She only whimpered in response. A few days later Murphy and some of his friends had managed to corner Rosa's classmate. All they'd managed to do was threaten him a bit before he'd wet his pants and Murphy decided he wasn't even worth his time. He worried for Rosa though. She'd never been violent before but after her mother passed away, beating up other kids seemed to become her pass-time. The worst part was that she always ended up feeling awful about it. But that all changed once her father joined her mother in death.

They had been thirteen and Rosa's dad had been battling depression for two years until he finally gave in and hung himself. Murphy had expected Rosa to go on a rampage, to do something crazy or even just cry or shout. She didn't. Rosa didn't do anything. She stopped fighting other kids, she became non-violent. It was almost like she'd made peace with death and stopped trying to pry people away from it by force. Murphy had had no idea about her father's depression but after that all her acting-out made sense. She hadn't only been fighting to defend her mother's memory but she'd also been fighting the idea that her father could share the same fate.

Murphy had liked her father. Both her parents had been kind and welcoming to him when they were around. Her father had always been very quiet though. Murphy had always had the impression that behind his kind black eyes there was an undertone of sadness, even when his wife was alive. Murphy knew that he was all Rosa had left after her parents had gone. He invited her to live with him and his mother. Well, it was more like he _told_ her to. Rosa moved in and his mother didn't complain, after all she was usually too drunk to fully realize the situation.

Rosa was always helpful around the house and did all she could to make herself useful. Or keep busy. She even held his mother's hair while she vomited in the evenings. It was nice to have her, but it was by no means a happy family. Rosa barely talked to him about anything deeper than their daily life. He didn't know what to do and it felt like she'd disappeared even though she was right there with him every day. Finally, one evening about a year after she moved in, he decided he wasn't just going to let her shut him out. His mother had passed out hours ago and Rosa was calmly washing the dishes with her back to him.

"Rosa" he got up from the couch and walked over to her.

"Yes?" her voice was barely audible.

"Look, we need to talk. _You_ need to talk" he breathed.

"Talk?" she sounded genuinely puzzled "why? What's the problem?"

"_This_ is the problem" he was getting irritated. He'd tried countless times to get her talking and she would always just dodge the whole issue and act like nothing happened. He'd had enough.

"You can't keep avoiding this" he slammed his palms on the table in front of him "you have to let it out. You have to talk to somebody" he paused "you've changed after what happened."

"Of course I've fucking changed John" she raised her voice for the first time in months and finally turned to face him "my family is gone."

He sighed and let go of some of the anger that had been building up inside him. At least she was actually talking to him now.

"I'm just worried Rosa" he looked at her with caring blue eyes "of course no one comes out of that okay. I just want to make sure you're still yourself."

Rosa paused and looked down at the floor. He walked around the table and closed the distance between them, grasping her shoulders.

"Please" he said and she finally looked him in the eyes.

"Happiness is a choice John" she began "I learned that from my father."

Murphy furrowed his brow "what do you mean?"

"I mean to say that my mother spent her life trying to get him to make that choice by giving him love and a family. I had no idea how hard it could be to support someone who doesn't want to live. Until her job fell to me, that is."

Murphy was beginning to understand and he wrapped an arm around her. He felt terrible for only finding this out now.

"I tried my best for two years to get him to choose to be happy, to show him he still had a family who loved him. In the end it just wasn't enough without my mom" Rosa sighed but there was no trace of tears in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry Rosa" Murphy hugged her tightly.

"Don't be" she hugged him back "people make their own choices in life and I know I did all I could. In the end all I could do was not let him drag me down with him. I chose happiness, or at least I'm working on it."

"Rosa… you're the strongest person I know" he mumbled in her ear.

Upon hearing his words tears formed in her eyes "It took me three years to finally realize that I can't fight death. People die and I can't control that, all I can do is try my best not to cause any more pain."

She finally burst out crying and Murphy held her. Her tears weren't of despair or anger. They were simply the closure she needed. She cried long into the night and all the while he held her, even after they'd moved to lie on the couch. He stroked her hair, dried her tears and whispered calming words to her until she fell asleep in his arms. As he looked at the peaceful smile that had formed on her sleeping face he realized what she truly meant to him. She was family. She was his family and he loved her.

"I'll never let you feel alone again Rosa, I'm here for you" he whispered.

Murphy wished he'd been able to keep that promise but after his mother's final words to him he couldn't cope. If only he hadn't been so reckless after that. He'd gotten himself thrown in lockup a year later and just like that he'd left her alone. He was just a good-for-nothing criminal. Although it was no longer a surprise to him that she managed just fine without him. She was strong after all.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN:** Hey everyone! I am so very sorry for the long delay in uploading this chapter but I've been super busy. I've been traveling a lot lately and just after I got back home I had a whole week of exams. I'll try to update more frequently now that I'm done with that. As always enjoy and don't forget to **review**!

* * *

"You wanna keep it down or should I paint a target on your back?" Finn hushed the group as they trudged through the forest.

He and Clarke had spotted a trail of blood near a waterfall they'd used to freshen up. Finn had followed it until it began to taper off into just occasional footprints and broken branches. Rosa admired his tracking skills. He may not have seemed like much to her at first but he was smarter than he let on. The more she thought on this the more she was inclined to make him an ally. She could learn a lot from him.

"So, Finn" She whispered next to him and Clarke "can you teach me how to do this sometime?"

"Sure," he whispered back smiling "you just gotta keep your eyes open, spot the little traces people and animals leave behind."

"You mean like the blood over there?" Rosa pointed to a spot on the ground nearby. Being observant certainly wasn't an issue for her, it came with the job.

Finn and Clarke immediately moved to examine it. It was definitely blood and a small twig hung broken from a bush beside it.

"Good start Rosa, you'll be a tracker in no time" Finn chuckled.

Murphy visibly rolled his eyes, making sure the spacewalker saw him.

Suddenly a loud moan of pain sounded from further ahead in the trees. The whole group turned in its direction.

"What the hell was that?" Murphy's eyes widened.

"Now would be a good time to take out that gun" Clarke told Bellamy as she moved towards the noise.

All of them took off after her and Finn into the trees ahead. The plants gave way to their presence and soon the teenagers found themselves in a clearing with a single tree standing in its center. Another moan sounded and that's when they saw Jasper. The scrawny teenager was tied high on the tree's trunk, bloodied and unconscious.

"Oh my God, Jasper" Clarke rushed forward.

"What the hell is this?" Bellamy growled as he followed her.

Rosa stared up at Jasper. Clarke and Finn had told her that the poor boy had only been speared after he'd crossed the river. Judging from the poultice on his wound she figured this was probably a warning for having trespassed. All this show was definitely meant to scare them.

Rosa was snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a sudden cracking of wood. Clarke disappeared into the ground in front of them with a gasp. The princess had stepped into a trap.

"Clarke" Finn shouted.

Bellamy had caught her but wasn't pulling her up. "_Crap, I can't let him kill her_" Rosa thought as she rushed to pull the other blonde out of the pit of hollow bamboo spikes. Apparently she wasn't the only one to have that idea and soon after she grabbed Clarke a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, helping her pull. Murphy and Finn started pulling on Bellamy and in no time the princess was safe.

"Thanks" she breathed and her blue eyes locked on Rosa's grey ones.

She offered a quick smile in response "let's get Jasper."

"I'll climb the tree and cut the vines" Finn offered.

"I'll come with you" Wells was all too eager.

"No, you stay with Clarke" the spacewalker cut him off, glaring at Bellamy "and watch him."

Finn turned, getting ready to climb the tree, only to find Rosa was already swinging her lithe body onto the first branch she could reach. His brow rose as she leaped and swung her way to the intended spot above Jasper's head in no time. Rosa looked down to see a cluster of impressed faces, all but Murphy who only offered a knowing smirk.

"Well? You gonna give me a hand?" she was serious. They didn't have time for this.

"Yeah" Finn started climbing as soon as the words left his mouth "I've just never seen anyone that… agile."

"How did you learn to climb like that?" Bellamy looked interested. Rosa knew he was probably thinking of how she could come in handy.

"Through necessity, trial and error" she sighed and Murphy also began his ascent.

She knew her answer had only made him more curious but at least he realized they didn't have time for chit chat. Rosa began to cut the vines binding Jasper's arms as Finn and Murphy held him. This was when Clarke noticed the poultice covering the spear wound and the group began to debate why it was there.

"Keep it down" Rosa interrupted them "we still don't know what's out there."

As if to prove a point a loud growl sounded from the trees nearby.

"What was that?" Bellamy looked defensive "grounders?"

"Doubt it" Rosa paled as she saw a large black feline emerge from the bushes. She gripped her throwing knife tightly.

The panther-like creature growled again and started towards Clarke.

"_Damn, she's just a magnet for trouble_" Rosa thought to herself as she took aim with the knife. It wasn't easy to hit a moving target, not to mention she never was a star at throwing knives.

"Bellamy" Clarke sounded panicked "gun."

Just then the creature sped up and simultaneously gunshots sounded, but it wasn't Bellamy firing. It was Wells. The feline changed course to avoid the bullets and was now heading towards the unarmed rebel leader. The tallest boy fired his last shot at the predator just as it pounced. The panther fell to the ground, lifeless. Everyone was now staring at Wells and the empty handgun he was holding.

"Now she sees you" Bellamy breathed, glaring at Wells.

"Come on" Rosa spoke after a moment of tense silence "let's get him down before anything else comes for dinner."

The group moved quickly after that and they were all trudging back through the woods with Jasper in no time. Wells and Rosa held him in a makeshift stretcher made from parachutes from the dropship while Bellamy and Murphy dragged the dead panther in a sack of the same material.

Suddenly Jasper let out a loud groan of pain.

"Would somebody shut him up?" Bellamy was getting nervous, especially now that he didn't have his gun.

"He can't help it" Clarke hissed in response.

"He's gonna get us killed" he declared as his eyes darted around the surrounding trees.

Jasper groaned again. Everyone but Clarke and Finn tensed. Rosa could see Bellamy gazing ahead, trying to stop himself from putting the scrawny guy out of his misery. Murphy also had a terribly tense look on his face and she didn't like it one bit. The last thing he needed was more infamy caused by an attempted murder.

A third groan finally set him off. Murphy dropped his end of the panther and started towards Jasper.

"Murphy stop" Clarke moved to stop him but he was too fast.

Rosa acted quickly. She couldn't drop her end of the stretcher so she stuck her foot out at the last moment, just enough to trip him. She winced as he fell flat on his face in the grass. She didn't think he would fall so hard, but she knew she was going to pay for this later. Wells snickered from behind her.

"Murphy," she tried to remedy the situation "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to…"

He got up and stood right in front of her, staring her down. He wasn't particularly tall but he was still taller than her. She had to admit she felt a bit intimidated. They stood in silence. Anger burned in his blue eyes and for a brief moment Rosa wondered if he was going to hit her, but she pushed the thought from her mind immediately. She stood her ground. No way was she going to let anyone think they'd intimidated her.

"Let's go" he mumbled seemingly calm, but Rosa could hear him grinding his teeth.

He picked up his end of the panther again next to a smirking Bellamy and began walking. They all resumed their trek and Finn sidled up to Rosa with Clark by his side.

"Hey" he greeted.

"Hi" Rosa replied. She knew what was coming.

"So," the spacewalker began "do you mind if I ask, what's up with you and that Murphy guy? I mean, I don't think many people would get away with tripping him like that."

"Yeah, we knew each other on the Ark" she didn't really like it when people asked about her personal life, but sometimes it couldn't be helped.

"_What's it to you?_" she thought to herself. Most of all she didn't like having to explain her relationship with Murphy. It always led to the same silly question.

"So you two aren't…?"

"No" she cut him off bluntly. She'd been on earth a day and both Monty and Jasper had already asked the same question. It was getting annoying.

"Sorry" he finally seemed to catch on and changed the subject.

"Don't worry about it" Rosa sighed, after all he was only trying to be friendly.

The trek back to camp passed quickly and without any more problems. Murphy was too busy fuming about Rosa tripping him to bother trying to kill Jasper again. As soon as they entered camp Clarke rushed Rosa and Wells into the dropship with the stretcher. The blonde was a whirlwind of action as she tried to help the dying boy on the stretcher. Rosa didn't really think he had much of a chance and she didn't want to hope for something that most likely wasn't going to happen, but she stayed to help in the makeshift sickbay anyway. She followed Clarke's commands precisely as the smell of roasted panther meat wafted into the ship. Soon Jasper was as stable as they could make him and Rosa finally realized how hungry she was. That, and the fact she was still hanging around the dropship despite her hunger. She really didn't want to bump into Murphy. She knew he was waiting for her somewhere, ready to argue. She could just picture it.

She'd slink out of the dropship and he'd be there waiting.

"Finally" he'd say, most likely with his arms crossed "what the hell do think you're doing?"

This is where she'd sigh and shrug and he'd be all sarcasm and pointed comments. He'd keep picking on her until she'd finally react. That's where the real argument would begin. She really didn't feel like doing any of that, but she couldn't resist her hunger any longer.

Rosa finally slipped out of the dropship into the cool evening air. The fire was still blazing and what was left of the panther was slowly roasting over it. Not many people were still hanging around, most had already eaten. Only Bellamy stood vigilant next to the fire, taking off the kids' wristbands in return for food. The line up quickly came to an end and Rosa was the only one left.

"_Great,_" she thought as she approached "_if he thinks he's getting my wristband he's got another thing coming_."

She began planning how she'd be able to steal the meat and how to distract Bellamy but when she reached him she was pleasantly surprised.

"Here," Bellamy held out a piece of panther meat on a stick to her "just don't let anyone see."

"Thanks" she was at a loss for words.

"Don't mention it," he mumbled "by the way, Murphy's looking for you."

"Right" she sighed "I thought as much."

He chuckled and went back to tending the fire. Rosa headed for her shared tent wondering what had prompted Bellamy to bend the rules of his little society. Somehow she doubted his kindness was genuine. He was probably going to ask her to do something for him later, that or Murphy had talked him into it.

"Finally" Murphy said as she entered the tent, his arms crossed "what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"_Why did I have to be right?_" Rosa thought to herself. She sighed and shrugged as she bit into the panther meat. It was bitter.

"You had to go and make me look like an idiot in front of everyone" he accused as he stood himself in front of her.

"That's because you were being one" she clipped.

"Oh. Yeah. Like you've never let anger get the better of you" his words stung, but she just kept eating her meat in silence.

"I guess all your classmates on the Ark just beat themselves up" he continued. He knew he was getting to her.

"_I _never sided with them though, I always supported you," he reminded her "I always had your back, even when you were wrong."

"Don't you dare" Rosa got up. She was furious.

"I _always_ have your back" she hissed.

"Let me give you a newsflash" she looked him in the eyes "the last thing you need is more infamy. Lots of people around camp don't like you. What do you think would have happened if you had killed Jasper? Even if they somehow decided to pardon you, in this place sacrifices need to be made to stay alive. Who do you think will be the first to go?"

Murphy was silent. He hadn't thought about that.

"Bellamy wouldn't let that happen" he argued, but he didn't sound too convinced.

"Yeah, right. Bellamy versus an angry mob of delinquents" Rosa finished her food and started getting settled in her bedding "I suggest you start making more friends around here" she huffed "Goodnight."

Both were silent as they slid under their covers and lay there facing away from each other, waiting for sleep to come.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN:** Hello again everyone. I wanted to thank all the new followers and, of course, thanks for the favs. Please do review, feedback is very important to me. It's necessary, especially if this story is going to be any good. I appreciate constructive criticism (compliments too, hehe). This chapter is mainly about Rosa and Murphy, enjoy!

* * *

Rosa woke in the early hours of the morning to the sound of Jasper's groans of pain. They were so loud they echoed through the whole camp. Rosa tossed and turned in her bedding until she finally gave in to the fact she wasn't going to get any more sleep. She sat up. The sun wasn't even up yet. Murphy snored lightly on the other side of the small makeshift tent. She remembered the previous night's argument and hoped he wasn't still angry at her. She didn't like to prolong fights unnecessarily. Another one of Jasper's moans was heard from the dropship.

"Fucking…" Murphy mumbled in his sleep as his brow furrowed.

Rosa smiled to herself and brushed his bangs out of his face. They were starting to get long. Not that she minded, in fact she thought he looked good. Well, to her he always looked good. Rosa let herself stare for a while longer before getting dressed and leaving the tent. She went to the small stream near camp and washed up as best she could. Another groan from Jasper drew her attention to the dropship. A lot of kids had been kept awake and they weren't too happy about it.

"Just die already!" one shouted in the direction of the groans.

"Somebody shut him up" another growled from across camp.

Rosa decided to check on the situation. In no time she was climbing the ladder to the second floor of the ship.

"The grounders cauterized the wound" Clarke observed "they saved his life."

"They saved his life so they could string him up as live bait" Finn continued.

"I don't think it was bait" Rosa interjected "I'm pretty sure it was a warning."

"A warning?" Monty asked.

"Yeah, as in _don't cross the river or next time we'll kill you_" she offered.

Silence fell for a moment as they all considered this possibility.

"Monty" Clarke finally spoke "any progress on using the wristbands to contact the Ark?"

Rosa turned to the sleep-deprived boy with a glint of hope.

"That would be a firm no" he sighed.

Suddenly Wells entered the makeshift sickbay.

"How's he doing?"

"How does it look like he's doing?" Clarke snapped.

"Hey, I'm just trying to help" he answered.

"Okay, I'm heading out" Rosa walked up to the ladder "you guys need anything?"

"No, we're good" Clarke answered "thanks Rosa."

The young thief quickly ducked out of the dropship before those two could bicker any further. Clarke could really be a bitch when she wanted to. Although, Rosa wondered what Wells had done to deserve such treatment.

"What say you and me take a trip to the butterfly field?" Octavia was busy talking to Atom on the bottom floor of the ship.

Rosa had heard the gossip around camp about these two and how Bellamy hadn't been happy about it. Apparently they had hooked up while Rosa and the others had been rescuing Jasper. Needless to say Atom had been punished for it. Rosa wondered if Murphy had had any part in that. She hadn't talked to him about anything yet, aside from their argument.

"Atom" Octavia was being blatantly ignored.

Rosa decided to mind her own business as Octavia stormed past her towards Bellamy's tent. She watched as the younger Blake entered. Seconds later a snickering Murphy was expelled from the shelter.

"Someone's in trouble," he mocked when he saw Rosa standing there "I guess she's not too happy about having her toy taken away."

"I guess this means you have some free time" Rosa commented as the argument inside the tent grew heated.

"Yeah. So?" Murphy shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Come with me" she gestured towards the treeline to the north.

"What, so you can trip me again?"

"Oh come on" Rosa couldn't believe he still held a grudge "you know very well that I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to go down that way."

He just looked at her scornfully, crossing his arms.

"Okay, really Murphy, I'm sorry" she pleaded "now please just come with me, I have to show you something."

"Show me something?" his curiosity got the better of him as he followed her into the trees.

"Come on," she dragged him by the hand "I've been meaning to show you for a while, it's a bit of a walk."

Murphy followed silently. He remembered she'd told him about this a couple of nights ago but he could not for the life of him remember what she had to show him. He decided not to question it, he'd see it eventually. Instead he occupied his thoughts during the long walk with watching how her hair gleamed brightly in the sunshine, or how her soft hand felt in his own. He listened to her humming and enjoyed the curve of her hips and how her backside bounced with every step. He didn't try to chase the thoughts of her body from his mind. His thoughts were his own after all. No one else had to know.

"John" his name called him out of his thoughts. Rosa had been talking to him.

"What?"

"I said, I hope you're not still mad at me" she repeated "I really do feel bad about it."

"Don't." He didn't like making her feel guilty. Holding grudges and dragging out arguments was just part of his nature. That's why he admired her "_forgive and forget_" attitude. Well, maybe not forget.

"I'm not mad" he finished.

She turned to him and smiled but her expression suddenly changed to one of fear and confusion as she looked over his shoulder.

"What the hell?" she said as the forest floor was filled with billions of stampeding creatures. Insects, small rodents, and even a few deer encircled them as they ran past them, further north.

"What are they doing?" Murphy wondered as he tried not to step on any of them.

"They're running" Rosa looked grim.

"Running? From what?" he was confused.

"I don't know," she grabbed his hand "but we should too. When these many animals all stampede, it can't mean anything good."

Murphy glanced around, trying to listen for any danger.

"Come on, the bunker I told you about isn't far" she breathed and picked up the pace in the direction the animals were going.

Murphy followed quickly. He turned around for a moment to see if he could catch a glimpse of the threat. His eyes widened as a cloud of yellow fog peeked through the trees behind them. It was moving fast.

"Rosa" he called out "run!"

Both of them ran, side by side, crushing insects as they went. The trees were a blur around them and all Murphy could hear was his own heartbeat in his ears. He was scared and yet he had no idea what they were running from. The only thing guiding them was pure animal instinct.

"It's there" he heard Rosa shout to him "just after that fallen log."

They vaulted over it and stopped on top of a large rusted metal hatch almost completely covered with leaves. They hauled the heavy thing open and in no time they were inside, sealing the hatch behind them. The only noise in the dark bunker was their heavy breathing.

"Are you okay?" Rosa's voice broke the silence.

"Yeah" Murphy answered as he caught his breath "you?"

"Yes."

Just then the light from a small flashlight shone, revealing the contents of the bunker. Murphy glanced over at Rosa and realized she was the one holding the light.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked and realized it wasn't only a flashlight but a multi-tool.

"Where do you think?" she looked at him matter-of-factly.

"Right," he rolled his eyes "Danny and friends. What a precious little family."

"Don't start" she hissed as she approached a table in the middle of the room. About a dozen candles stood on its surface. Rosa opened a dusty cabinet on the wall and rummaged for any kind of lighter.

"So what do you think that yellow fog was?" Murphy drawled as he made his way to the table, knowing full well his question was pointless.

"No idea" she mumbled as she moved on to another cabinet "probably poisonous though."

She finally found a lighter and soon enough about half the candles were lit and spread throughout the bunker giving it a peaceful, evening atmosphere.

"So, did you find anything good in the cabinets?" he questioned.

"Just a few blankets and two first aid kits, but I didn't look through all of them."

"Great, looks like we won't have to play spin the bottle to pass the time after all" he joked as he flung a wardrobe wide open. Rosa let out a small giggle.

"I'm gonna see if there's any way to see outside" she informed him as she stood on the sofa in the corner and peeked into a vent in the wall.

"We've been in here all of five minutes and you already can't wait to leave? I'm hurt" he mocked as he removed a pile of clothes from the bottom of the wardrobe.

"Come on," she giggled again "you know we need to get back to camp as soon as possible."

"Yeah, like we've got any appointments. Seriously Rosa, I'm in no hurry to get back" a loud clunk punctuated his sentence as he unraveled a t-shirt he'd pulled from the closet. A small handgun lay on the floor at his feet. The two kids looked at each other, then at the gun.

"Nice find" Rosa commented as she approached him.

"Yeah," he picked it up "this is gonna come in handy."

"You're bringing it back to camp?" she stood in front of him, her hands on her hips. He knew that expression.

"I'm not gonna shoot anyone" he held his hands up "at least, no one who doesn't deserve it."

"Have you ever even used one?"

He was silent.

"What if someone else takes it?" she continued "it could cause a lot more problems than it's worth."

"Or it could help solve some."

"John, no" she reached for it but he backed away "just give it to me."

"No, I found it" he chuckled as he held it up, out of her reach.

"Murphy you ass," she jumped to reach it, unsuccessfully "fine, just don't bring it back to camp."

He smirked. She mimicked his expression and lunged, causing him to stumble backwards into the wardrobe. He still held the gun out of her reach. Rosa got as close as she could, her body pressed into his as she reached for the gun. He hadn't expected this. Murphy flushed as he felt her breath on his neck. He fought the urge to just drop the gun and wrap his arms around her. His breath caught as she pressed her full chest into his as she jumped to reach his hand. If he didn't break the contact soon his body would give him away. If only she knew what she was doing to him. He snaked a hand between them and pushed her away. Their eyes locked for a moment and the malicious glint in her expression told him she knew _exactly_ what she was doing to him.

"Bitch," he sneered "you did that on purpose."

"Did what?" she asked.

Of course she'd never admit it. He slid the gun on top of the wardrobe, much to her dismay.

"This" he approached her quickly and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly. She looked up at him, her hands on his chest and her cheeks flushed. They held each other's gaze. After a moment Murphy found himself leaning in, focused solely on her pink lips. She seemed to mirror his movements. He looked into her eyes for one last confirmation and that's when her expression changed.

"Sorry" she mumbled, as if emerging from a trance. She snaked her way out of his embrace and turned her back to him.

"I didn't mean to… I just… I'll go see if there's a way to see outside" she hurried off to investigate another vent in the wall.

"Yeah," his tone was bitter "don't worry about it."

After about an hour Rosa came to the conclusion that there was no way to see outside. After about another hour of pacing, cursing, and rummaging she decided to try and peek through the hatch. The two teenagers managed to get it open a crack but it turned out to be a mistake. A tiny cloud of yellow fog seeped in just before they managed to seal the hatch again.

"What the hell is this?" Murphy coughed violently "it burns like hell."

"I have no idea" she also coughed "but it looks like we might have to spend the night."

Soon the air vents cleared the fog from the room and the two inhabitants went back to the awkward silence that had settled in before.

"About the gun, Murphy…" Rosa broke the silence.

"I won't bring it back to camp yet, Rosa" he answered from his spot on the sofa "but as soon as someone or something gives me a reason to, I will."

"Thank you" she mumbled.

The evening passed slowly with Rosa keeping busy by sorting through the unexplored containers and cabinets. Not turning up anything particularly useful. Murphy just sat on the sofa staring up at the ceiling, all the while thinking back to what had happened earlier. What had gone wrong? He'd thought she'd wanted to kiss him too. Maybe he'd just imagined it all or she was just toying with him. Either way, he knew he'd just have to go back to pretending he felt nothing other than friendship for her. He hated this. After a while Rosa curled up on a bed on the opposite side of the room while he slowly dozed off on the sofa, still contemplating what had happened.


End file.
